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Clauses · FAR · Ethics and integrity · provision

FAR 52.209-5 Certification Regarding Responsibility Matters

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

No

The provision has no flow-down; primes include it in sub forms for convenience and to support the diligence required by 52.209-6 (not contracting with a debarred/suspended sub) — presence in 8/43 documents in the corpus confirms it is practice, not mandate

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 2026-08-04 · edition AUG 2020 (solicitation provision, not a contract clause) · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

One item for your checklist.

  1. Something you fill in and send back

    Hours, once you know which one is missing.

    • The responsibility certification, ticked and signed with the offer — debarment, convictions and civil judgments in the last three years, pending indictments, delinquent federal tax debt and terminations for default

      FAR 52.209-5(a)(1)

When it is used

It is a PROVISION in the prime's solicitation (prescribed at 9.104-7(a)), not a contract clause — the current text carries no threshold of its own (unconfirmed — the prescription usually limits it to solicitations above the SAT, but the text as read does not state it). It reaches the sub because the prime replicates the certification in its reps & certs forms, typically to comply with its sister 52.209-6 (protection against debarred subs).

Read closely

The boxes are answered for the company and for its principals, and a check in the wrong column is a false certification rather than a paperwork slip. Answering yes does not disqualify anyone by itself — the certification feeds the buyer's own responsibility determination, and a company that checks the conviction box is pointed at 52.209-7 where that provision is in the solicitation.

The 6 templates that name it, with the line
76CORPDOC 2A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Commercial Products/Services under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 330143CORPDOC 3A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Fixed Price Non-Commercial Items under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 506155CORPDOC 4A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Cost-Reimbursement/T&M Subcontracts under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 541105Raytheon TC-002 — Supplement 1: Government Contract Provisions from the FARRTXline 285240L3Harris LGL-50.F1 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Other Than Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 1555273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 992

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.209-5 and 9.104-7(a) (verified 2026-08-04)

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.