FAR and DFARS › FAR Part 52: Solicitation Provisions and Contract Clauses › Subpart 52.2

FAR 52.203-5 Covenant Against Contingent Fees.

The codified text (eCFR, as of 2026-10-02). Under the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul ↗, agencies follow class deviations with new text for many parts while the formal rules go through the Federal Register: check the solicitation and your contract's clauses, which rule.

In plain English

This clause requires the contractor to promise that no one was hired or kept to get this contract for a fee that depends on winning it, except regular employees or legitimate agencies. If that promise is broken, the Government can cancel the contract without owing anything, or take back the full amount of the contingent fee.

Applies to: Contractors awarded contracts that include this clause

What it requires

  • Warrant that no person or agency was employed or retained to solicit or obtain this contract for a contingent fee, except a bona fide employee or agency

Key terms: bona fide agency · bona fide employee · contingent fee · improper influence

Written by AI from this section's text. A guide, not legal advice: the text below rules.

The text

As prescribed in 3.404, insert the following clause:

Covenant Against Contingent Fees (MAY 2014)

(a) The Contractor warrants that no person or agency has been employed or retained to solicit or obtain this contract upon an agreement or understanding for a contingent fee, except a bona fide employee or agency. For breach or violation of this warranty, the Government shall have the right to annul this contract without liability or to deduct from the contract price or consideration, or otherwise recover, the full amount of the contingent fee.

(b) Bona fide agency, as used in this clause, means an established commercial or selling agency, maintained by a contractor for the purpose of securing business, that neither exerts nor proposes to exert improper influence to solicit or obtain Government contracts nor holds itself out as being able to obtain any Government contract or contracts through improper influence.

Bona fide employee, as used in this clause, means a person, employed by a contractor and subject to the contractor's supervision and control as to time, place, and manner of performance, who neither exerts nor proposes to exert improper influence to solicit or obtain Government contracts nor holds out as being able to obtain any Government contract or contracts through improper influence.

Contingent fee, as used in this clause, means any commission, percentage, brokerage, or other fee that is contingent upon the success that a person or concern has in securing a Government contract.

Improper influence, as used in this clause, means any influence that induces or tends to induce a Government employee or officer to give consideration or to act regarding a Government contract on any basis other than the merits of the matter.

(End of clause)

Sections it refers to

Sections that refer to it

← 52.203-4 [Reserved] · 52.203-6 Restrictions on Subcontractor Sales to the Government. →

Rule changes for FAR Part 52

Source: eCFR, 48 CFR chapters 1 and 2 (GPO GovInfo bulk data) ↗. Plain words for the terms: glossary.

FAR 52.203-5 Covenant Against Contingent Fees · SpendQuery