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Clauses · FAR · Termination

FAR 52.249-4 Termination for Convenience of the Government (Services) (Short Form)

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

No

There is no flow-down mandate anywhere. The entire clause is one sentence and it contains no subcontracts paragraph; FAR 49.502(c) directs the contracting officer, not the contractor. Primes flow it down as back-to-back mirroring: the prime is exposed to a Government convenience termination and wants an identical, and cheaper, exit against the sub. Note what the substitution does — with 'Contracting Officer' read as the prime's buyer and 'Government' read as the prime, the clause becomes an at-will cancellation right held by the prime, exercisable in whole or in part, for its own convenience, with no showing required.

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 2026-08-05 · edition APR 1984 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

One item for your checklist.

  1. 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.

    • Daily records of the services rendered before the effective date, invoiced under the order's ordinary payment provisions — that is the whole of what this clause pays for

      FAR 52.249-4

When it is used

FAR 49.502(c): the CO shall insert 52.249-4 in solicitations and contracts for services, REGARDLESS OF VALUE, when three things are true together — (1) a fixed-price contract is contemplated, (2) the CO determines the successful offeror will not incur substantial preparation charges, and (3) termination settlement charges would be limited to services rendered before termination. The FAR's own examples are parking-space rental and laundry services, i.e. work with no standing inventory and no mobilization. Other fixed-price work routes elsewhere: 49.502(a) to 52.249-1 at or below the SAT ($350k), 49.502(b) to 52.249-2 above it; cost-reimbursement and T&M/labor-hour take 52.249-6 (Alternate IV for T&M/LH). A commercial subcontract terminates under 52.212-4(l), not under this clause. No dollar threshold at all — value never eliminates it.

Read closely

One sentence, no paragraphs, so the citation stays at the clause. There is no settlement proposal in it, no termination inventory schedule and no 120-day or one-year clock: staff you cannot redeploy, lower-tier commitments you cannot cancel, unamortized mobilization and leases taken for the job are not recoverable. 52.249-2, which the same primes flow down for supplies, pays all of that.

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.249-4 and FAR 49.502(c) (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.