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Clauses · FAR · Pricing and audit · provision

FAR 52.215-20 Requirements for Certified Cost or Pricing Data and Data Other Than Certified Cost or Pricing Data

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

No

No flow-down paragraph. Primes reuse the provision in subcontract RFQs because it is the standard vehicle for requesting cost data from the sub — which the prime needs to pass on to the government by force of 52.215-12/-13. Presence in a template ≠ prescription.

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 NOV 2021 (provision; Alt I and IV OCT 2010, Alt II and III OCT 1997) · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

3 items for your checklist, slowest first.

  1. Something you write2

    Days to weeks, and nobody outside your company has to agree to it.

    • A written request for exception naming the law or regulation that waives certified data, or the sales and price history that supports a commercial product or commercial service

      FAR 52.215-20(a)(1)

    • Certified cost or pricing data and supporting attachments prepared on the FAR 15.408 instructions — the Table 15-2 package

      FAR 52.215-20(b)

  2. Something you fill in and send back

    Hours, once you know which one is missing.

    • A signed Certificate of Current Cost or Pricing Data in the form at FAR 15.406-2, before award

      FAR 52.215-20(b)(2)

When it is used

A SOLICITATION provision (15.408(l)): enters when it is reasonably certain that cost data — certified or not — will be required. It reaches the sub when the prime reuses it in the subcontract RFQ to structure the data request. Certified data: above the TINA threshold ($2.5M) with no exception; 'data other than' can be requested below that. (Trigger corrected 2026-08-05, backlog item 12: the entry gated on the dollar threshold and `commercial == false` and stopped there, so a non-commercial order above the threshold came out `applies` — deciding a question 15.408 leaves to 15.403-1(b). The family was also inconsistent with itself: 52.215-11 and 52.215-21 carried a structural leg for this and 52.215-10, -12, -13 and -20 did not. Prescription verified against acquisition.gov, FAR 15.408.)

Read closely

Paragraph (a)(2) opens the books to examination at any time before award, for verifying an exception request. This is a solicitation instrument, and its presence in a template is not a prescription.

Alternates

  • Alt II · OCT 1997

    FAR 15.408(l).

    Alt II adds a paragraph (c) about where the copies go — one to the administrative contracting officer and one to the contract auditor, on top of the standard submission. The package itself is the one paragraph (b) already asks for.

The 13 templates that name it, with the line
76CORPDOC 2A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Commercial Products/Services under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 258143CORPDOC 3A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Fixed Price Non-Commercial Items under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 150155CORPDOC 4A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Cost-Reimbursement/T&M Subcontracts under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 152233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 852105Raytheon TC-002 — Supplement 1: Government Contract Provisions from the FARRTXline 219166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-001 — U.S. Government Firm Fixed Price Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2223166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-003 — U.S. Government T&M Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2169168Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-004 — U.S. Government Cost Reimbursement Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2265255GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-005 — General Provisions, Firm Fixed Price PO under U.S. Government Contract (Non-Commercial)General Dynamicsline 947243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 1871240L3Harris LGL-50.F1 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Other Than Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 1464273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 277178AAR Component Services NY — U.S. Government Contract FAR and DFARS Clauses Incorporated by ReferenceAAR Corpline 461

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.215-20 and 15.408(l) (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.