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Clauses · FAR · Quality and inspection

FAR 52.246-5 Inspection of Services—Cost-Reimbursement

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

No

Zero mention of subcontracts in the text (verified). Primes include it out of convenience: without the mirror clause, the prime has no contractual right to inspect the sub's services or to demand re-performance at no cost — rights it needs to pass down because it owes them to the Government.

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 APR 1984 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

2 items for your checklist, slowest first.

  1. A program you have to be running

    You are either running it or you are not, and what the prime asks for is the date it started.

    • An inspection system acceptable to the Government, covering the services under the contract

      FAR 52.246-5(b)

  2. Something you write

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

    • Complete records of all inspection work performed, available to the Government during performance and for as long afterwards as the contract requires

      FAR 52.246-5(b)

When it is used

Prescribed by 46.305 for cost-reimbursement service contracts. The current text does not even mention subcontractors — it reaches the sub exclusively because the prime mirrors the entire cost-type inspection package into the subcontract.

Read closely

The cost-reimbursement services version. Nonconforming services are reperformed or corrected without additional compensation, so on a cost-type job the rework is the unpaid part even though the cost line is reimbursable. (c) puts Government inspection at all places and times during the term.

The 8 templates that name it, with the line
155CORPDOC 4A — FAR/DFARS Flowdown Provisions for Cost-Reimbursement/T&M Subcontracts under a DoD Prime ContractLockheed Martinline 324233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 1176105Raytheon TC-002 — Supplement 1: Government Contract Provisions from the FARRTXline 26312Boeing GP4 — General Provisions, Cost Reimbursement Contract under U.S. Government Prime ContractBoeingline 97168Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-004 — U.S. Government Cost Reimbursement Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2397243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 2123240L3Harris LGL-50.F1 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Other Than Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 2096273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 917

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.246-5 and 46.305 (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.