Clauses · FAR · Pricing and audit
FAR 52.214-26 Audit and Records-Sealed Bidding
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
Yes
In all subcontracts expected to exceed the threshold for submission of certified cost or pricing data in FAR 15.403-4(a)(1) — $2.5 million — measured on the date of subcontract award. Below that figure there is no mandate to insert it, and a template that flows it unconditionally onto a $60,000 purchase order is over-flowing
- Form
- verbatim — paragraph (e) requires 'a clause containing all the provisions of this clause, including this paragraph (e)'
- Reaches
- all tiers — the clause is self-perpetuating by its own terms, so it repeats down the chain at every level that crosses the threshold
Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-05 · edition JUN 2020 (Basic; Alt I MAR 2009) · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
2 items for your checklist, slowest first.
Something you write
Days to weeks, and nobody outside your company has to agree to it.
- FAR 52.214-26(e)
This same clause, with all its provisions including paragraph (e) itself, written into your own subcontracts
Owed on each subcontract expected to exceed $2.5 million at the date you award it; below that figure paragraph (e) does not reach
Nothing to send now
It does not hold the order. It decides what money moves later — what you can claim, what can be claimed from you, and what can be held back — and none of that changes after signature.
The books, accounting procedures, working papers and pricing data behind any modification proposal, held available at your own office for three years after final payment — longer for terminated work, and until disposal for anything under appeal, litigation or a claim
FAR 52.214-26(d)
When it is used
FAR 14.201-7(a)(1): inserted in sealed-bidding solicitations and contracts when the acquisition does not use funds appropriated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the contract amount is expected to exceed the certified cost or pricing data threshold at FAR 15.403-4(a)(1) — $2.5 million as of 2026-08-05. It is the sealed-bidding twin of 52.215-2, Audit and Records-Negotiation (already in the base); a negotiated procurement carries 52.215-2 and should not need this one, so a template that carries both is mirroring two regimes at once. Alternate I (MAR 2009), prescribed at 14.201-7(a)(2), is the ARRA version: it replaces paragraphs (c) and (e) to extend access to the Comptroller General and the appropriate Inspectors General and their representatives, while stopping the Inspector General's authority at the first tier.
Read closely
FAR subpart 4.7 as in effect on the contract date is incorporated whole and can run the retention clock longer for some record classes. Paragraph (c) gives the Comptroller General the same access and the right to interview current employees. A template carrying this onto a $60,000 purchase order is reaching past paragraph (e)'s own threshold.
The 4 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.214-26, FAR 14.201-7(a), FAR 15.403-4(a)(1), FAR subpart 4.7, plus the FAR Overhaul part 14 deviation guide 14.208(a) (verified 2026-08-05)
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.