GenCorp and government contracts

There is an interesting article in the Wall Street journal today concerning how GenCorp recognizes reimbursements from government contracts. GenCorp is a defense contractor which owns a subsidiary called Aerojet. Aerojet makes propulsion systems for the Patriot and Tomahawk missile systems. However, Aerojet also created a large environmental pollution problem. From the Wall Street Journal article we find out:

The federal government in a 1999 settlement agreed to cover up to 88% of Aerojet's environmental cleanup costs in the form of future contracts.

Because of this GenCorp records a current asset for future recoverable amounts from the Government for cleaning up polluted sites. Here is the relevant information from GenCorp's footnotes:

The Company recognizes amounts recoverable from insurance carriers, the U.S. government or other third parties, when the collection of such amounts is probable. Pursuant to U.S. government agreements or regulations, the Company can recover a substantial portion of its environmental costs for its Aerospace and Defense segment through the establishment of prices of the Company’s products and services sold to the U.S. government. The ability of the Company to continue recovering these costs from the U.S. government depends on Aerojet’s sustained business volume under U.S. government contracts and programs (see Note 13).

Note 13 is the company's contingencies footnote which is 6 to 7 pages long. The relevant information about Aerojet is on page 91. The question is whether a company should recognize a receivable for future recoverable amounts when those amounts are not certain.