§ 1842.803 - Disallowing costs after incurrance. (NASA supplements paragraph (b))

(b) Auditor receipt of vouchers. (1) NASA has designated the contract auditor as the contracting officer's representative for—

(A) Reviewing vouchers received directly from contractors;

(B) Approving vouchers for provisional payment and sending them to the disbursing office;

(C) Reviewing completion/final vouchers and sending them to the designated contracting officer for approval.

(D) Authorizing direct submission of interim vouchers for provisional payment to disbursing offices for contractors with approved billing systems.

(2)(A) When contract costs are questioned, the auditor shall prepare and send to the cognizant contracting officer NASA Form 456, Notice of Contract Costs Suspended and/or Disapproved.

(B) After coordination with other NASA and Federal agency contracting officers administering contracts with the same contractor under which a NASA Form 456 or a DCAA Form 1 has been issued for the same items of cost, the NASA contracting officer shall take one of the following actions:

(a) Assign a notice number and sign the NASA Form 456.

(b) Issue a new NASA Form 456 suspending the costs rather than disapproving them pending resolution of the issues.

(c) Return the unsigned NASA Form 456 to the auditor with a detailed explanation of why the suspension or disapproval is not being signed, and process the contractor's claim for payment.

(C) When more than one NASA contract is affected by a notice, the NASA contracting officer with the largest amount of contract dollars affected is responsible for coordination of the NASA Form 456 with the other contracting officers, including those of other Federal agencies, listed in the notice.

(D) An original and three copies (which includes two acknowledgment copies, one each for return to the contracting officer and the auditor) of the NASA Form 456 shall be sent to the contractor by certified mail, return receipt requested; one copy shall be attached to the Standard Form 1034 and each copy of the Standard Form 1034A on which the deduction for the suspension/disapproval is made.

(E)(a) If the amount of the deduction is more than the amount of the public voucher, the installment method of deduction shall be applied to the current and subsequent public vouchers until the amount is fully liquidated. The deductions on any voucher may not exceed the voucher amount to avoid processing of a voucher in a credit amount. Public voucher(s) with zero amounts must be forwarded to the fiscal or financial management office for appropriate action.

(b) If deductions are in excess of contractor claims, recovery may be made through a direct refund from the contractor, in the form of a check payable to NASA, or by a set-off deduction from the voucher(s) submitted by the contractor under any other contract unless those contracts contain a “no set-off” provision. If a set-off is affected, the voucher(s) from which the deduction is made should be annotated to identify the contract and appropriation affected and the applicable NASA Form 456.