DCAA opens new areas for audits

The Defense Contract Auditing Agency is turning up the heat on its hunt for unallowable costs. A blogger on About.com is reporting that the DCAA is increasing its focus on several areas including business development and marketing, per diem limits, project losses, procedure changes and forward pricing.

Michael Bame writes that DCAA briefed him on the new focus areas, which come out of several Government Accountability Office audits that criticized DCAA.

Among the changes are DCAA’s desire to focus on the separation of business development costs and marketing costs. Marketing costs are not an allowable cost, and DCAA wants more costs classified as marketing.

DCAA also will be paying more attention to per diem costs in expense reports and the personal use of cell phones. They also will want more original paperwork or approved scanning and storage systems to exam invoices and cost support, Bame wrote.