Accounting Firms Launch Defense Consulting Practice

Nancy Catarisano, Managing Partner of Rochester-based accounting firm Insero & Company CPAs, P.C. and Thomas Filomeno President of Filomeno & Company. P.C. CPAs of West Hartford, CT, announced today the launch of a new consulting practice, Defense Contracting Consultants, LLC.

With Catarisano as majority-owner and managing member, Defense Contracting Consultants is a woman-owned small business registered with the U.S. Small Business Administration. Denise Metivier (Pittsford, NY) and William T. Laramee (South Windsor, CT) have been named as leaders of the group.

“Our goal is to provide collaborative long-term relationships designed to support the unique compliance needs and challenges faced by each of our clients,” said Metivier, who has been a consultant to companies with federal contracts for the past 18 years. The group will provide a wide variety of services including current state assessments, contract review and federal market business development consulting.

“Companies who can prove they meet the new federal compliance regulations are winning contracts and being rewarded with additional business opportunities,” said Laramee. “That being said, companies engaged in federal government contract work continue to face intense scrutiny.” Mandatory reporting under the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) as well as FAR and DCAA accounting regulations require all contractors, including Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 sub-contractors, to be in compliance with DCAA standards. Failure to comply can lead to monetary liability, loss of contracts and ineligibility to perform on future contracts.

Achieving DCAA and FAR compliance is a complex process encompassing the totality of a Federal Contractor’s operation relevant to each contract. This can be especially daunting for small and mid-size companies entering the federal market space for the first time. For existing federal contractors, the stringent, complex and ever-changing scrutiny of accounting and contract regulatory requirements place additional strain on already tight in-house human resource and operational budgets. The cost to train and maintain federal DCAA expertise across an entire company’s operation has become prohibitive.

Insero & Company CPAs, P.C. and Filomeno & Company, P.C. CPAs are both full-service public accounting firms providing assurance, tax and consulting services.