Cost and Price Analysis for Interagency Agreements - Article Example

PRIMER AND CHECKLIST FOR CONDUCTING COST AND PRICE ANALYSIS FOR INTERAGENCY AGREEMENTS – Article Review and Section # of > PRIMER AND CHECKLIST FOR CONDUCTING COST AND PRICE ANALYSIS FOR INTERAGENCY AGREEMENTS The chosen article for analysis is about the inter-agency dealings and how their agreements are priced. This article serves as a guide or the foundation for the staff of an agency in conducting inter-agency transactions i.e. the buying and selling of goods and services from federal agencies.

The article is divided into two major parts. Firstly, it presents an overview of the cost and pricing analysis and its major concepts that need to be understood by the cost and price analysts. The second part presents a checklist that assists in the interagency agreements while making the cost and price analysis. In the first section of the article, the author describes details about the cost and pricing analysis, and the various aspects of its differentiation. The author clearly marks that price is the birds-eye view while cost can be understood as the element by element review.

Alongside, the author also states that price analysis can be used singly while cost analysis has to always involve price analysis. The ultimate outcome, as the author states, is to have the justification of fairness and reasonability of the analyses. The author also puts forth the idea for the sources of objective data coming from Historical Costs/Prices, Catalog or Market prices, Cost Estimating Relationships (CERs), Government Estimates, and Government Costs/Prices. Alongside this, further information regarding the value and program value has been given that clarifies any thoughts of the utility of the cost and price program.

This section of the article gives a very good idea of the importance associated with the cost and price analysis. The second section of the article is very much specific to the cost and pricing activity and practices in the inter-agency agreements. The article states that it is a common practice to have the price divided into cost components and have each justified with a written statement. The generally and widely used cost components include personnel, travel, equipment, supplies, contractual, construction, other costs, and the indirect costs.

To justify these costs, the article clarifies; there are a few questions that can be answered as a justification for each of these cost components. This constitutes the interagency agreements cost and price explanation. Over all, this article presents a decent over view of the cost and price analysis, and particularly for the inter-agency agreements. References Primer & Checklist for conducting Cost & Price Analysis for Interagency Agreements Retrieved November 11, 2008, from Website: www.usaid.

gov/policy/ads/300/306maa.pdf