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Clauses · FAR · Administration and definitions

FAR 52.244-5 Competition in Subcontracting

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

No

Primes mirror it in larger subs to extend the competition discipline down the chain and defend themselves in a purchasing system review (CPSR) — the clause itself only governs how the contractor selects its own suppliers

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 2024 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

One item for your checklist.

  1. Nothing to send, ever

    There is no paperwork here. It is a rule you follow while you perform the work.

    • Nothing to hand over. Suppliers and lower tiers are selected on a competitive basis to the maximum practical extent consistent with the objectives and requirements of the contract

      FAR 52.244-5(a)

When it is used

Negotiated contracts above the SAT ($350k), except FFP awarded with adequate price competition or price set by law, and except T&M, labor-hour, and architect-engineer (44.204(c)). No regulatory flow-down — it becomes the sub's business when the prime mirrors it and the sub has significant purchasing/lower-tier work.

Read closely

(b) is the one express exception: an approved Department of Defense mentor may place work with its protege without competition. The paragraph states how selection is done and requires no record of its own — the documentation a purchasing system review asks for comes from that review's criteria rather than from this clause.

The 8 templates that name it, with the line
143CORPDOC 3A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Fixed Price Non-Commercial Items under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 274155CORPDOC 4A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Cost-Reimbursement/T&M Subcontracts under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 305233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 942105Raytheon TC-002 — Supplement 1: Government Contract Provisions from the FARRTXline 115255GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-005 — General Provisions, Firm Fixed Price PO under U.S. Government Contract (Non-Commercial)General Dynamicsline 1157243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 2119273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 495178AAR Component Services NY — U.S. Government Contract FAR and DFARS Clauses Incorporated by ReferenceAAR Corpline 1590

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.244-5 and 44.204(c) (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.