whatbindsCheck your order

Clauses · FAR · Quality and inspection

FAR 52.246-6 Inspection—Time-and-Material and Labor-Hour

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

No

There is no insertion mandate. But (c) authorizes the Government to inspect the plant 'of the Contractor or any subcontractor' and (d) obligates the prime to 'require subcontractors to furnish all reasonable facilities and assistance' — obligations the prime can only meet with a mirror clause in the T&M subcontract.

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 MAY 2001 · 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 material, the fabricating methods, the work and the services on a time-and-materials or labor-hour order

      FAR 52.246-6(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 52.246-6(b)

When it is used

Prescribed by 46.306 for time-and-material and labor-hour contracts. In practice it comes down because the prime mirrors the T&M regime into the sub; (c) already provides for inspection 'of the Contractor or any subcontractor engaged in contract performance'.

Read closely

Hourly billing rests on the same records: (c) reaches the plant of the contractor or any supplier engaged in performance, and deficient material can be sent back for replacement or correction up to six months after acceptance. On this contract type a contested rework hour is an hour worked and not billed.

The 6 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 326233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 1210105Raytheon TC-002 — Supplement 1: Government Contract Provisions from the FARRTXline 268166Northrop Grumman CTM-P-ST-003 — U.S. Government T&M Order (Not for Commercial Products and Services)Northrop Grummanline 2305240L3Harris LGL-50.F1 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Other Than Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 2098273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 921

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.246-6 and 46.306 (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.