Period of Performance under economy act order

I think your question digs into the issue of bona fide need as I believe an order processed under the Economy Act is subject appropriation law principles that shape the bona fide need rule. Knowing more details would probably assist in a specific reply. With this said here are a couple of references that may assist you in applying appropriation law principle of bona fide need to your specific issue. One point to remember is that sometimes agencies have policy that is more restrictive than regulation based on statute.

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https://www.dau.edu/acquipedia-article/bona-fide-need

@DaveShaw By Economy Act order, do you mean you are placing an order against another agency contact? If so, are you using direct cite of your own funding on the order?

This is an inter-agency agreement using 7600B as funding. My agency requestor issued a 7600B using a multi-year fund with the period of performance of 2 years. The servicing agency said the period of performance can not exceed beyond 12 months for the transaction.

DaveShaw said:

The servicing agency said the period of performance can exceed beyond 12 months for the transaction.

Did you leave "not" out of this sentence?

Will the servicing agency be providing the requested services using its own personnel?

I did but have edited to read can not

On 2/20/2026 at 9:21 AM, DaveShaw said:

Is there a regulation that does not limit period of performance to 12 months under economy act order?

The servicing agency is probably wrong here if they are telling you that your Economy Act order PoP cannot exceed 12 months, even though the 1) funds are multiple-year appropriations and 2) the services are non-severable. Presumably, this both a misapplication and misinterpretation of the bona fide need rule. Usual caveats apply: A definitive answer depends on the exact situation. This is a guess.

Generally: For a typical Economy Act order, funding limitations (such as the bona fide need rule) generally are based upon the funds used, and funding rules and rules determination are the responsibility of the requesting activity, not that of the servicing activity. Although the servicing activity does have to ensure the requesting activity isn't attempting to circumvent the law.

Also note: My agency routinely does Interagency Agreements under the Economy Act using non-appropriated or no-year funds (so not identical to you) and these IAAs are exempt from the bona fide need rule - they can fund severable services for > 12 months, or fund in current FY severable services which will start in the next FY. These funds have many rules and limitations, but that isn't one of them.

General just beat me to saying the same thing. Another possibility is the servicing agency may not be set up to handle more than annual appropriations.

Thank you every one for the insights. General you summarize the situation perfectly. and former fed I believe the servicing agency mostly deals with O&M funds. But we have it sorted, we were able to adjust the PoP dates to 12 months as requested by servicing agency. She also suggested using Project Order instead of economy act order, if we want the PoP to be longer than 12 months.