Consolidation of DoD Government Property Clauses … and then some.

The Roman poet Virgil famously wrote, “I fear the Greeks, even when they bear gifts.” These words were top of mind when reading the Department of Defense’s (DoD) recently issued final rule, finalizing Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) Case 2020-D029: Consolidation of DoD Government Property Clauses.

The background section of the final rule states the purpose is to, “… consolidate contract clauses related to management and reporting of government property, update references to certain forms that are being incorporated into electronic processes, and update references to applications used to report receipt, shipment, transfer, or loss of government property, or excess government property.” Coincidently, and most interestingly, the DoD also managed to impose some new requirements on contractors.

What the case stated it would do

First things first, what exactly is the new clause consolidating and updating? The new clause, DFARS 252.245-7005 Management and Reporting of Government Property, effective Jan. 22, 2024, consolidates three legacy clauses and removes a fourth. The clauses that it consolidates are DFARS:

• 252.211-7007 Reporting of Government-furnished Property
• 252.245-7002 Reporting Loss of Government Property
• 252.245-7004 Reporting, Reutilization, and Disposal of Government Property

The final rule also removes DFARS 252.245-7001 Tagging, Labeling, and Marking of Government-Furnished Property. The requirements of all four clauses are to be consolidated into the new -7005 clause. Additionally, the DoD updated references to the Plant Clearance Automated Reutilization Screening System (PCARSS) for which a class deviation has existed since late 2021, requiring reporting into the Government Furnished Property (GFP) Module of the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment (PIEE) instead of PCARSS.

What the clause added new

Now for the new requirements. The final rule and the resultant DFARS clause impose newly defined time frames for reporting requirements, revises existing reporting requirements and defines a new marking requirement.

Time frames

The new clause imposes a seven-business-day reporting requirement into PIEE for contractors, related to events impacting GFP. As contractors receive GFP, as they disposition GFP, as GFP is transferred between contracts, as GFP is shipped and even as GFP (serially managed) is incorporated into other higher-level components [1], contractors are required to report these events into PIEE within seven days.