The DCAA Audit Found a Gap. The Gap Cost More Than the Contract.

A defense maintenance contractor holds a cost-plus contract for engine overhaul and repair services on military aircraft. A DCAA audit of the most recent contract year identifies a documentation gap: sensor data from engine test runs exists, but no sealed tamper-evident audit trail links the readings to specific engine serial numbers, workscope completion events, or contract deliverables.

The work was performed correctly. The engines passed all required test parameters. But under government cost accounting standards, a record that cannot be independently verified does not exist for audit purposes. The contractor cannot demonstrate that the data was not created, modified, or backdated after the fact.

The DCAA finding triggers a contract performance review. Two pending contract renewals — combined value $11.4 million — are placed on hold. Remediation through conventional compliance consulting is estimated at $340,000 with an 18-month timeline.

Shabboo Black Box is deployed on the contractor's test cell workstation. Every engine run generates a forensic evidence package automatically at run completion — a sealed SHA-256 audit manifest, a full sensor deviation report against OEM design baselines, and a PDF diagnostic report with cryptographic chain of custody documentation. The package is immutable from the moment of generation.

At the next DCAA audit cycle, the contractor presents a complete library of sealed forensic evidence packages — one per engine run — covering the full contract period. Every record is independently verifiable. The documentation gap finding is closed. The pending contract renewals are released.