Determination of allowable costs
19.—(1) The Secretary of State may not make an application under section 20(5) for a determination of the extent to which a particular cost is an allowable cost unless—
(a)the Secretary of State has sent the primary contractor a written notice requiring the primary contractor to show that the requirements set out in section 20(2)(a) to (c) are met in relation to that cost;
(b)at least 20 working days have elapsed since the date of that notice; and
(c)no response, or no response which the Secretary of State considers to be satisfactory, has been received.
(2) An application must be made within two years after the contract completion date.
(3) In making a determination, the SSRO must have regard to—
(a)the information that was available to each party at the time of agreement;
(b)the statutory guidance in place at the time of agreement;
(c)in the case of a contract which contains provision of the kind described in regulation 15 (TCIF adjustment), those provisions;
(d)whether the parties disclosed, in a timely manner, the facts and assumptions they used to determine the allowable costs or the contract profit rate.