Clauses · FAR · Ethics and integrity · provision
FAR 52.203-18 Prohibition on Contracting with Entities that Require Certain Internal Confidentiality Agreements or Statements-Representation
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
There is no flow-down mandate and there cannot be one: 3.909-3(a) prescribes it for solicitations only. Primes carry it into flow-down packets because their own solicitation carried it and the packet was built by copying the prime's Section I list; what they actually need from you is the clause 52.203-19, which IS on both commercial flow-down lists
A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition Jan 2017 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Something you fill in and send back
Hours, once you know which one is missing.
The representation, made by submitting the offer, that employees and suppliers are not required to sign internal confidentiality terms that block them from reporting waste, fraud or abuse
FAR 52.203-18(d)
When it is used
FAR 3.909-3(a): the provision goes in ALL solicitations funded with appropriations subject to the prohibition at 3.909-1(a), with one exception — personal services contracts with individuals who perform the work themselves (3.909-3(a)(2)). No dollar threshold, no commercial or COTS carve-out. For a Part 12 commercial buy the same representation is collected through 52.212-3(u)(3) (Oct 2025) instead of this provision. It is a solicitation instrument: the substantive rule that survives award is the companion CLAUSE 52.203-19, already in the base.
Read closely
This is a solicitation provision and the representation is made at offer. The duty that runs during performance is the companion clause 52.203-19, which is where the written notice to employees is required. (c) preserves the Government's own nondisclosure forms — Standard Form 312, Form 4414 and their equivalents.
The 3 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.203-18, FAR 3.909-3 and FAR 52.212-3(u) (verified 2026-08-05); RFO Part 3 model deviation status via the VA class deviation adopting the FAR Council model text, signed 2025-10-02, effective 2025-11-03
This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.