Compliance

An interim rule published by the Department of Defense authorizes DoD contracting officers to withhold payment from contractors whose business systems they deem deficient. Issued on May 18, 2011, the rule implements Section 893 of the Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act of 2011, which we discuss here. It authorizes COs to withhold up to ten percent of progress payments if the CO determines that the contractor’s business systems contain significant deficiencies. The new rule applies to solicitations issued on or after May 18, 2011. COs are encouraged to amend existing solicitations with the new requirements “to the extent feasible.”

Contractors seeking to comply with the new requirement to report the compensation of their five highest paid executives under FAR 52.204-10 (July 2010) still have a lot of unresolved questions. We heard some of the questions during our June 8, 2011 webinar on the topic, which was sponsored by L2 Federal Resources, LLC, publisher of The Contracting Post. Thanks for hosting!

Here are some of the questions posed, along with our answers.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs is proposing changes to the standard-form Scheduling Letter that will impose significant new burdens on contractors. The proposed changes would require contractors to provide their leave policies (including their entire employee handbook), more detailed demographic and compensation data, as well as the last three years of VETS-100/VETS-100A reports.…

Did the U.S. Postal Service’s lack of procurement regulations inadvertently help USPS officials carry out a $13 million bribery scheme over several years?  Five Postal Service employees were indicted in May 2011 by a Detroit, MI grand jury for taking bribes and steering as much as $13 million in vehicle maintenance work to a private contractor. Could this scheme have been prevented, or caught earlier, if USPS had not abolished its procurement regulations in 2006?

Contributed by Husch Blackwell Partner Bert Wolf, Esq.

Government contractors are relieved that they won’t immediately face having 3% of their invoices withheld as an advance against future tax liability. The IRS’s final rule implementing the 3% withholding tax won’t go into effect until 2013.  Absent a material modification, contracts executed by December 31, 2012 will be exempt from the withholding tax entirely, at least until January 1, 2014. But that isn’t the end of the story. Here is a bit of the background on the source of the 3% withholding tax, why it has been delayed, and some thoughts on why it’s not a great solution to the problem at hand.

Developments in the OFCCP’s investigation of compensation disparities at United Space Alliance, LLC are worthy of consideration. During a 2009 desk audit, OFCCP conducted a standard threshold test of United Space Alliance’s compensation data.  Although this audit uncovered no indicators of pay discrimination, OFCCP conducted additional tests of the data, commonly known as the “pattern analysis” and the “30 and 5 Refinement” tests. These tests revealed potential pay bias, and OFCCP requested more extensive compensation data to examine the question more closely. The case begins when United Space Alliance refused to comply with OFCCP’s request.

On April 26, 2011, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs formally proposed regulations to update contractor affirmative action obligations concerning veterans. The proposed rules impose additional obligations on covered federal contractors and subcontractors. For the first time, OFCCP is seeking to impose quantitative measurements to assess the hiring of protected veterans, self-identification invitations…

Do you think that small business contracts and subcontracts have been going to contractors that do not qualify as small businesses? If so, you may be interested in the new legislative changes intended to discourage and penalize fraud in small business contracting. The changes are in the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, signed by the President on September 27, 2010.