Army contracting: Contractor manhour reporting requirement; CFR part removed,
[Federal Register: July 13, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 135)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 36711]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr13jy01-8]
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Department of the Army
32 CFR Part 668
Report On Use of Employees of Non-Federal Entities To Provide Services to Department of the Army
AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs), and Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology), Department of Army, DOD.
ACTION: Final rule.
SUMMARY: This action removes the Department of the Army regulations on Contractor Manhour Reporting Requirement. The Director of Defense Procurement directed the Department of the Army to withdraw the regulations pending approval of, and further rulemaking on, the repetitive use provisions employed in covered Army contracts. In addition, the Office of Management and Budget concluded that the final rule made significant changes to the interim rule in apparent conflict with the Paperwork Reduction Act.
DATES: Effective July 13, 2001.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. John R. Conklin, at john. conklin@saalt.army.mil, or Dr. John C. Anderson at 703-614-8247 or John.Anderson@hqda.army.mil.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 1. Applicability: No new contract actions containing the requirements cited in 32 CFR Part 668 may be awarded after the effective date of this rule. Contracting officers shall timely notify, in writing, all contractors whose existing contracts contain 32 CFR Part 668 requirements, that the requirement has been eliminated and that no further reporting is required under those contract actions. Any actual modification of such contracts to formally eliminate the requirement must take into account such issues as consideration and best interest of the Government on a case-by-case basis.
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Background: The Department of the Army, in the Federal Register (65 FR 13906) dated Wednesday, March 15, 2000, announced an interim rule to establish and implement basic contractor-reporting requirements to identify the number and value of direct, and associated indirect, labor work year equivalents for contracted services in support of the Army. This requirement was Army's implementation of statutory mandates and FY 2000 Congressional data requirements (10 U.S.C. 129a, 10 U.S.C. 2461(g) and Section 343 of the FY 2000 DoD Authorization Act).
Army contracting officers were directed to include the reporting requirements in all covered contracts involving services for Research and Development or Other Services and Construction. The interim rule was effective on the date of publication. A final rule, published at 65 FR 81357-81362, December 26, 2000, codified regulations at 32 CFR Part 668 that mandated the inclusion of a reporting requirement in certain contract actions as described in the rule.
As a result of a number of legal and technical/procedural issues and significant complaints from industry about the scope and methodology of the Army final rule and the rulemaking process, the Director of Defense Procurement (DDP) in memorandums dated May 5, and June 5, 2001, directed the Army to cease using the standard contract requirements language (``repetitive use clause'') in covered contracts absent approval by the DDP and rulemaking in 40 CFR (covering acquisition regulations supplementing and implementing the Federal Acquisition Regulations System). The Office of Management and Budget concluded that the final rule made significant changes to the interim rule without changing the Paperwork Reduction Act estimates and assumptions, and without allowing for additional public comment thereon, in apparent conflict with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Based on the foregoing, the Army hereby removes the resulting regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations (32 CFR Part 668).
General: The Army's requirement for information on unit level contractor manpower equivalents, as stated in the December 26, 2000, final rule, remains. The Army needs this information for a host of reasons, including planning, programming and budgeting, and priortization and allocation of resources. From March 2000 to the present, the Army collected over $9.2 billion in contract data from approximately 1,200 contractors. Although this data has yet to be validated and analyzed in depth, initial indications are that the numbers of contract manpower equivalents reported by contractors were lower (for the associated values) than those estimated employing algorithms currently used by the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense for reporting to Congress.
List of Subjects in 32 CFR Part 668
Government contracting, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.
PART 668--[REMOVED AND RESERVED]
Accordingly, for the reasons set out in the preamble, 32 CFR Chapter V, Subchapter L, Part 668, Contractor Manhour Reporting Requirement, is removed in its entirety.
Luz D. Ortiz, Army Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. 01-17613Filed7-12-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3710-08-M
