DoD trying to eliminate pricing data requirements in commercial buying

The Defense Department plans to set up centers of excellence that will specialize in commercial item costs in hopes that the department will not have to rely on pricing data to establish fair and reasonable prices.

The centers of excellence will train DoD employees in commercial pricing practices. Those pricing experts would look at similar products and use other techniques of verifying price without having to resort to unverified cost/price data, said DoD Director of Procurement and Acquisition Policy Claire Grady, during an Oct. 6 event hosted by Defense One in Arlington, Virginia.

“It’s difficult to price commercial products and our workforce is not necessarily well-skilled to do that. We are trying to give them additional tools to do that successfully to get to a fair and reasonable price without having to resort to cost or pricing data,” Grady said. “The goal is to not go to cost or pricing data to find some other mechanism to establish that fair and reasonable price. The real problem is when you no longer have market forces that are establishing a fair price that the market is willing to pay.”

DoD is required by law to buy items at a “fair and reasonable price,” and verifying that price has proven to be complicated.

Continue reading at http://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition/2015/10/dod-trying-eliminate-pricing-data-requirements-commercial-buying/.