§ 970.3101-2 - Direct and indirect costs.

(a) Direct costs identified specifically with a management and operating contract are direct cost of performing that contract and are to be charged directly thereto. All costs specifically identified with other final cost objectives of the management and operating contractor are direct cost of those cost objectives and are not to be charged to the contract directly or indirectly. For reasons of practicality, any direct cost of minor dollar amount may be treated as an indirect cost if the accounting treatment—

(1) Is consistently applied; and

(2) Produces substantially the same results as treating the cost as a direct cost.

(b) Indirect cost are not subject to treatment as a direct cost and thus directly chargeable to a contract. After direct costs have been determined and charged directly to the contract or other work, indirect costs are those remaining to be allocated from an appropriate indirect cost accumulation account. The following principles and procedures shall apply to indirect costs to the extent that they are incurred under management and operating contracts.

(1) Indirect costs to the extent required to be or otherwise incurred in the accounting system of the operating contractor shall be accumulated by logical cost groupings with due consideration of the reasons for incurring such costs. Each grouping should be determined so as to permit distribution of the grouping on the basis of the benefits accruing to the cost objectives to which it is to be allocated. Generally, overhead and general and administrative (G&A) expenses are separately grouped. Similarly, the particular case may require subdivision of these groupings; e.g., building occupancy costs might be separable from those of personnel administration within a specific overhead group such as manufacturing overhead. This necessitates selecting a distribution base common to all cost objectives to which the grouping is to be allocated. The base should be selected so as to permit allocation of the grouping on the basis of the benefits accruing to the cost objectives. The number and composition of cost groupings should be governed by practical considerations and should not unduly complicate the allocation.

(2) Once an appropriate base for distributing indirect costs has been accepted, it shall not be fragmented by removing individual elements. For example, when a cost input base is used for the distribution of G&A costs, all items that would properly be part of the costs input base, whether allowable or unallowable, shall be included in the base and bear their pro rata share or G&A costs.

(3) The method of allocating indirect costs shall be in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles which are consistently applied.

(4) A base period for allocating indirect costs is the cost accounting period during which such costs are incurred and accumulated for distribution to work performed in that period.