Title 10Armed ForcesRelease 119-73

§3847 Defense Contract Audit Agency: annual report

Title 10 › Subtitle Subtitle A— - General Military Law › Part PART V— - ACQUISITION › Subpart Subpart D— - General Contracting Provisions › Chapter CHAPTER 279— - CONTRACTOR AUDITS AND ACCOUNTING › § 3847

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency must write a yearly report about the Agency’s work in the previous fiscal year. The report must describe major problems found in contractor audits and present statistical tables that cover several things at once: totals and dollar amounts of completed and pending audits by type; the priority for each type; how long each type takes from receiving a qualified incurred cost submission and from the audit start date; recovered questioned costs by type as totals and percentages; the number and dollar value of incurred cost audits finished and how they were done; the total cost to perform audits by type and the ratio of recovered questioned costs to audit costs by type; and audits pending more than one year with their dollar amounts and the fiscal year the submission was received. The report must also include recommendations to improve audits, summaries (by dollar amount and percent) of contractors’ indirect costs for independent research and development and for bid and proposal costs, a description of outreach to industry, and any other matters the Director thinks appropriate. By March 30 each year the Director must send the report to the congressional defense committees. Within 60 days after sending it, the Director must post the report on the Agency’s public website or another public site. The terms "incurred cost audit" and "qualified incurred cost submission" are defined in section 3842. "Sustained questioned costs" means questioned costs the Federal Government recovered through contract negotiations.

Full Legal Text

Title 10, §3847

Armed Forces — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency shall prepare an annual report of the activities of the Agency during the previous fiscal year. The report shall include, at a minimum—
(1)a description of significant problems, abuses, and deficiencies encountered during the conduct of contractor audits;
(2)statistical tables showing—
(A)the total number and dollar value of audit reports completed and pending, set forth separately by type of audit;
(B)the priority given to each type of audit;
(C)the length of time taken for each type of audit, both from the date of receipt of a qualified incurred cost submission and from the date the audit begins;
(D)the sustained questioned costs, set forth separately by type of audit, both as a total value and as a percentage of the total questioned costs for the audit;
(E)the total number and dollar value of incurred cost audits completed, and the method by which such incurred cost audits were completed;
(F)the aggregate cost of performing audits, set forth separately by type of audit;
(G)the ratio of sustained questioned costs to the aggregate costs of performing audits, set forth separately by type of audit; and
(H)the total number and dollar value of audits that are pending for a period longer than one year as of the end of the fiscal year covered by the report, and the fiscal year in which the qualified submission was received, set forth separately by type of audit;
(3)a summary of any recommendations of actions or resources needed to improve the audit process;
(4)a summary, set forth separately by dollar amount and percentage, of indirect costs for independent research and development incurred by contractors in the previous fiscal year;
(5)a summary, set forth separately by dollar amount and percentage, of indirect costs for bid and proposal costs incurred by contractors in the previous fiscal year;
(6)a description of outreach actions toward industry to promote more effective use of audit resources; and
(7)any other matters the Director considers appropriate.
(b)Not later than March 30 of each year, the Director shall submit to the congressional defense committees the report required by subsection (a).
(c)Not later than 60 days after the submission of an annual report to the congressional defense committees under subsection (b), the Director shall make the report available on the publicly available website of the Agency or such other publicly available website as the Director considers appropriate.
(d)(1)The terms “incurred cost audit” and “qualified incurred cost submission” have the meaning given those terms in section 3842 of this title.
(2)The term “sustained questioned costs” means questioned costs that were recovered by the Federal Government as a result of contract negotiations related to such questioned costs.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

A prior section 3847, added Pub. L. 85–861, § 1(94), Sept. 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1484; Pub. L. 86–559, § 1(25),
June 30, 1960, 74 Stat. 272, provided for transfer to Retired Reserve or discharge from his reserve appointment, after
July 1, 1960, of each officer in a reserve grade below lieutenant colonel with 25 years service assigned to Army Nurse Corps, Army Medical Specialist Corps, or Women’s Army Corps who had not been recommended for promotion to reserve grade of lieutenant colonel or who has not remained on active duty since such a recommendation, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 90–130, § 1(12)(A), Nov. 8, 1967, 81 Stat. 376.

Amendments

2021—Pub. L. 116–283, § 1835(c), renumbered section 2313a of this title as this section. Subsec. (d)(1). Pub. L. 116–283, § 1835(d)(3), substituted “section 3842” for “section 2313b”. 2017—Subsec. (a)(2)(A). Pub. L. 115–91, § 811(d)(1)(A)(i), inserted “and dollar value” after “number” and “, set forth separately by type of audit” after “pending”. Subsec. (a)(2)(C). Pub. L. 115–91, § 811(d)(1)(A)(ii), inserted “, both from the date of receipt of a qualified incurred cost submission and from the date the audit begins” after “audit”. Subsec. (a)(2)(D). Pub. L. 115–91, § 811(d)(1)(A)(iii), amended subpar. (D) generally. Prior to amendment, subpar. (D) read as follows: “the total costs of sustained or recovered costs both as a total number and as a percentage of questioned costs; and”. Subsec. (a)(2)(E) to (H). Pub. L. 115–91, § 811(d)(1)(A)(iv), (v), added subpars. (E) to (H) and struck out former subpar. (E) which read as follows: “an assessment of the number and types of audits pending for a period longer than allowed pursuant to guidance of the Defense Contract Audit Agency;”. Subsec. (a)(4), (5). Pub. L. 115–91, § 1081(d)(5), amended Pub. L. 114–328, § 824(d)(1)(B). See 2016 Amendment note below. Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 115–91, § 811(d)(1)(B), added subsec. (d). 2016—Subsec. (a)(4), (5). Pub. L. 114–328, § 824(d)(1)(B), as amended by Pub. L. 115–91, § 1081(d)(5), added pars. (4) and (5). Former pars. (4) and (5) redesignated (6) and (7), respectively. Subsec. (a)(6), (7). Pub. L. 114–328, § 824(d)(1)(A), redesignated pars. (4) and (5) as (6) and (7), respectively. 2015—Subsec. (a)(2)(D). Pub. L. 114–92, § 893(b)(1), amended subpar. (D) generally. Prior to amendment, subpar. (D) read as follows: “the total dollar value of questioned costs (including a separate category for the dollar value of unsupported costs); and”. Subsec. (a)(4), (5). Pub. L. 114–92, § 893(b)(2)–(4), added par. (4) and redesignated former par. (4) as (5).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2021 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 116–283 effective Jan. 1, 2022, with additional provisions for delayed implementation and applicability of existing law, see section 1801(d) of Pub. L. 116–283, set out as a note preceding section 3001 of this title.

Effective Date

of 2017 Amendment Pub. L. 115–91, div. A, title X, § 1081(d), Dec. 12, 2017, 131 Stat. 1599, provided that the amendment made by section 1081(d)(5) is effective as of Dec. 23, 2016, and as if included in Pub. L. 114–328 as enacted.

Effective Date

of 2016 Amendment Pub. L. 114–328, div. A, title VIII, § 824(d)(2), Dec. 23, 2016, 130 Stat. 2279, provided that: “The

Amendments

made by this subsection [amending this section] shall take effect on October 1, 2018.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

10 U.S.C. § 3847

Title 10Armed Forces

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73