81 FR 71733 - Submission for OMB Review; Debarment and Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 201 (October 18, 2016)

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act the Regulatory Secretariat Division will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an extension of a previously approved information collection requirement concerning debarment and suspension. This request also incorporated two other related information collection requirements (``Information Regarding Responsibility Matters'' and ``Prohibition on Contracting with Inverted Domestic Corporations--Representation and Notification''), which will be cancelled upon approval of this clearance. A notice was published in the Federal Register at 81 FR 8719 on February 22, 2016. One comment was received.

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 201 (Tuesday, October 18, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71733-71735]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-25123]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[OMB Control No. 9000-0094]; [Docket 2016-0053; Sequence 11]


Submission for OMB Review; Debarment and Suspension and Other 
Responsibility Matters

AGENCY: Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration 
(GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

ACTION: Notice of request for comments regarding an extension to an 
existing OMB clearance.

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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act the 
Regulatory Secretariat Division will be submitting to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an 
extension of a previously approved information collection requirement 
concerning debarment and suspension. This request also incorporated two 
other related information collection requirements (``Information 
Regarding Responsibility Matters'' and ``Prohibition on Contracting 
with Inverted Domestic Corporations--Representation and 
Notification''), which will be cancelled upon approval of this 
clearance. A notice was published in the Federal Register at 81 FR 8719 
on February 22, 2016. One comment was received.

DATES: Submit comments on or before November 17, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments regarding this burden estimate or any other 
aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for 
reducing this burden to: Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs 
of OMB, Attention: Desk Office for GSA, Room 10236, NEOB, Washington, 
DC 20503. Additionally, submit a copy to GSA by any of the following 
methods:
     Regulations.gov: http://www.regulations.gov.
    Submit comments via the Federal eRulemaking portal by searching the 
OMB control number. Select the link ``Submit a Comment'' that 
corresponds

[[Page 71734]]

with ``Information Collection 9000-0094, Debarment and Suspension and 
Other Responsibility Matters''. Follow the instructions provided at the 
``Submit a Comment'' screen. Please include your name, company name (if 
any), and ``Information Collection 9000-0094, Debarment and Suspension 
and Other Responsibility Matters'' on your attached document.
     Mail: General Services Administration, Regulatory 
Secretariat (MVCB), 1800 F Street NW., Washington, DC 20405. ATTN: Ms. 
Flowers/IC 9000-0094, Debarment and Suspension.
    Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite Information 
Collection 9000-0094, Debarment and Suspension and Other Responsibility 
Matters, in all correspondence related to this collection. Comments 
received generally will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any personal and/or business 
confidential information provided. To confirm receipt of your 
comment(s), please check www.regulations.gov, approximately two to 
three days after submission to verify posting (except allow 30 days for 
posting of comments submitted by mail).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Cecelia L. Davis, Procurement 
Analyst, Office of Acquisition Policy, at 202-219-0202 or via email at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

A. Purpose

1. Suspension and Debarment

    The FAR requires contracts to be awarded to only those contractors 
determined to be responsible. Instances where a firm, its principals, 
or subcontractors, have been indicted, convicted, suspended, proposed 
for debarment, debarred, or had a contract terminated for default are 
critical factors to be considered by a Government contracting officer 
in making a responsibility determination. FAR 52.209-5 and 52.212-3(h), 
Certification Regarding Responsibility Matters, and FAR 52.209-6, 
Protecting the Government's Interest when Subcontracting with 
Contractors Debarred, Suspended, or Proposed for Debarment, require the 
disclosure of this and other information relating to responsibility.

2. Information Regarding Responsibility Matters (Transfer From OMB 
Clearance Number 9000-0174)

    The Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System 
(FAPIIS) was developed to meet the statutory requirement to develop and 
maintain an information system that contains specific information on 
the integrity and performance of covered Federal agency contractors and 
grantees. FAPIIS provides users access to integrity and performance 
information from the FAPIIS reporting module in the Contractor 
Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS), as well as proceedings 
information and suspension/debarment information from the Central 
Contractor Registration (CCR) and the Excluded Parties List System 
(EPLS) functions in the System for Award Management (SAM).
    The prescription at FAR 9.104-7(b) requires contracting officers to 
insert the provision at 52.209-7, Information Regarding Responsibility 
Matters, in solicitations where the resultant contract value is 
expected to exceed $550,000. This provision contains a check box to be 
completed by the offeror indicating whether or not it has current 
active Federal contracts and grants with total value greater than 
$10,000,000. If the offeror indicated that it has current active 
Federal contracts and grants with total value greater than $10,000,000, 
then the offeror must enter certain responsibility information into 
FAPIIS.
    FAR 52.209-9, Updates of Publicly Available Information Regarding 
Responsibility Matters, requires each contractor that checked in the 
provision at 52.209-7 that it has current active Federal contracts and 
grants with total value greater than $10,000,000, to update 
responsibility information in FAPIIS on a semiannual basis, throughout 
the life of the contract.

3. Prohibition on Contracting With Inverted Domestic Corporations--
Representation and Notification (Transfer From OMB Clearance Number 
9000-0190)

    FAR 52.209-2 and 52.212-3(n), Prohibition on Contracting with 
Inverted Domestic Corporations--Representation, is prescribed at 9.108-
5(a) for use in each solicitation for the acquisition of products and 
services (including construction). The provision requires each offeror 
to represent whether it is, or is not, an inverted domestic corporation 
or a subsidiary of an inverted domestic corporation.
    FAR 52.209-10, Prohibition on Contracting with Inverted Domestic 
Corporations, is prescribed for use at FAR 9.108-5(b) for use in ach 
solicitation and contract for the acquisition of products and services 
(including construction). This clause requires the contractor to 
promptly notify the contracting officer in the event the contractor 
becomes an inverted domestic corporation or a subsidiary of an inverted 
domestic corporation.

B. Discussion and Analysis

    The analysis of the public comment is summarized as follows:
    One response was received. The commenter supports the efforts to 
contract with only responsible parties and to assure contracting 
officers engage in appropriate due diligence to support this effort.
    Comment: According to the respondent, the Federal Government has 
drastically underestimated the burden associated with compiling and 
reporting the requisite information by failing to take into account the 
offeror's obligation to assure that the information provided is 
current, accurate, and complete. It also fails to account for the 
requirement to update the information no less than semi-annually.
    Response: FAR 52.209-7 requires the contractor to enter information 
into FAPIIS and FAR 52.209-9 requires the contractor to update this 
information semi-annually. The initial burden estimate for FAR 52.209-9 
does take into account entering the information semi-annually. However, 
based on the comment, an adjustment was made from .5 hours to 1 hour 
per response, for FAR 52.209-9. The change doubles the initial burden 
estimate for that clause to allow more time for this action.
    Comment: The commenter stated that the Government may have 
understated the recordkeeping burden by several orders of magnitude. 
The number of recordkeepers does not equal the number of respondents 
and is unclear as to why. One cannot reasonably expect an offeror to 
provide the required information and certify it as current, accurate, 
and complete without maintaining the requisite litigation, employment, 
and corporate records.
    Response: In this situation, the estimate for recordkeeping is 
based on the number of offerors submitting data into FAPIIS, whether or 
not they receive an award. This provision requires that for each 
solicitation where the resultant contract value is expected to exceed 
$550,000, the offeror responds in paragraph (b) as to whether or not it 
has active Federal contracts that total more than $10,000,000. Only if 
the offeror responds affirmatively is there any further information 
collection requirement. The recordkeppers maintain the company's 
information internally. This explains the difference between the number 
of respondents and the number of recordkeepers.
    Comment: According to the commenter, the requirement to provide

[[Page 71735]]

``Information Regarding Responsibility Matters'' under 52.209-7 
violates Executive Order 13610, Identifying and Reducing Regulatory 
Burdens, in that it is a redundant collection of information and fails 
to maximize the re-use of data that are already collected. The 
commenter states that FAR clauses 52.209-5 and 52.209-7 request for 
information overlaps and yet is different enough to create substantial 
additional burden and confusion for offerors evaluating instance of 
litigation under both standards.
    Response: FAR 52.209-7 is a statutory clause that requires the 
Government to collect information that is loaded into FAPIIS. The 
clause must be implemented as intended. Some of the information being 
collected may seem redundant but it has different criteria. It is not 
identical information and used differently. Furthermore, the thresholds 
are different.
    FAR 52.209-5 implements policy guidance on debarment, suspension 
and ineligibility. FAR 52.209-5 is a certification that is placed in 
all solicitations when the contract value is expected to exceed the 
simplified acquisition threshold and covers 3 years. FAR 52.209-7 goes 
in solicitations expected to exceed $550,000 and covers 5 years and 
requires that the information be placed into FAPIIS (as required by 
statute).
    Comment: The existence of FAR 52.209-5 and 52.209-11 obviate the 
need for FAR 52.209-7 because all three clauses use offeror's 
litigation history as an indicator of it present responsibility.
    Response: These data requirements are different. One major 
difference between these clauses is that FAR 52.209-7 collects data to 
be added into FAPIIS. The others do not. Therefore, FAR 52.209-7 has a 
different requirement intent and needed.
    Comment: FAR 52.209-7 requires offerors to report information on 
matters so old they are no longer relevant to present responsibility.
    Response: The statute that this clause is based requires that it 
collects 5 years of data.

C. Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Burden

Annual Reporting Burden

    Respondents: 486,000.
    Responses per Respondent: 2.55.
    Total Annual Responses: 1,239,602.
    Hours per Response: 0.34.
    Total Burden Hours: 415,687.

Annual Recordkeeping Burden

    Recordkeepers: 5,080.
    Hours per Recordkeeper: 100.
    Total Annual Recordkeeping Hours: 508,000.

Public Comments

    Public comments are particularly invited on: Whether this 
collection of information is necessary; whether it will have practical 
utility; whether our estimate of the public burden of this collection 
of information is accurate, and based on valid assumptions and 
methodology; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and ways in which we can minimize the 
burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, 
through the use of appropriate technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology.
    Obtaining Copies of Proposals: Requesters may obtain a copy of the 
information collection documents from the General Services 
Administration, Regulatory Secretariat Division (MVCB), 1800 F Street 
NW., Washington, DC 20405, telephone 202-501-4755. Please cite OMB 
Control No. 9000-0094, Debarment and Suspension and Other 
Responsibility Matters, in all correspondence.

    Dated: October 13, 2016.
Lorin S. Curit,
Director, Federal Acquisition Policy Division, Office of Governmentwide 
Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition Policy, Office of 
Governmentwide Policy.
[FR Doc. 2016-25123 Filed 10-17-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6820-EP-P