[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 50 (Thursday, March 14, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16268-16269]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-05787]
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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
[OMB Control No. 9000-0179; Docket 2012-0076; Sequence 24]
Submission for OMB Review; Service Contracts Reporting
Requirements
AGENCY: Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration
(GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
ACTION: Notice of request for public comments regarding a new OMB
information clearance.
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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the
Regulatory Secretariat will be submitting to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve a new information
collection requirement for Service Contracts Reporting Requirements. An
initial notice soliciting public comments on the information collection
was published in the Federal Register at 76 FR 22070, on April 20,
2011, as part of a proposed rule under FAR Case 2010-0010. The public
comments received on only the information collection are addressed in
this notice under, ``Supplementary Information.'' Comments on the rest
of the proposed rule will be addressed with the issuance of the final
rule.
DATES: Interested parties should submit written comments to the
Regulatory Secretariat at the address shown below on or before April
15, 2013.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments in response to OMB Control 9000-0179, 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
with OMB Control 9000-0179 at the ``Submit a Comment'' screen. Please
include your name, company name (if any), and ``OMB Control 9000-0179''
on your attached document.
Fax: 202-501-4067.
Mail: General Services Administration, FAR Secretariat
(MVCB), ATTN: Hada Flowers, 1275 First Street NE., Washington, DC
20405.
Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite OMB Control
9000-0179, in all correspondence related to this case. All comments
received will be posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov,
including any personal and/or business confidential information
provided.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Edward Loeb, Procurement Analyst,
Contract Policy Division at (202) 501-00650 or via email at
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Purpose
Section 743(a) of Division C of the Consolidated Appropriations
Act, 2010 (Pub. L. 111-117) requires executive agencies covered by the
Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act (Pub. L. 105-270),
except DoD, to submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
annually an inventory of activities performed by service contractors.
DoD is exempt from this reporting requirement because 10 U.S.C 2462 and
10 U.S.C. 2330a(c) already require DoD to develop an annual service
contract inventory.
House Report 111-366 notes, in connection with section 743, that,
``in the absence of complete and reliable information on the extent of
their reliance on service contractors, Federal agencies are not well-
equipped to determine whether they have the right balance of contractor
and in-house resources needed to accomplish their missions. Therefore,
this rule intends to supplement agency annual service contract
reporting requirements with the contractor provided service contract
reporting information.
The information is to be submitted pursuant to a new clause and
solicitation provision. Certain prime service contractors will provide
annually--
a. The contract number, and, as applicable, order number;
b. The total dollar amount invoiced for services performed during
the previous Government fiscal year under the contract;
c. The number of contractor direct labor hours expended on the
services performed during the previous Government fiscal year; and
d. Data reported by subcontractors.
The prime contractor shall require each first-tier subcontractor
performing under the contract to provide annually--
a. The subcontract number (including subcontractor name and if
available, DUNS number; and
b. The number of first-tier subcontractor direct-labor hours
expended on the services performed during the previous Government
fiscal year.
In order to invoice the government for time-and-material/labor-hour
(T&M/LH) and cost-reimbursement contracts, contractors already track
labor hours expended, so the rule will cover T&M/LH and cost-
reimbursement contracts over the simplified acquisition threshold.
In an effort to keep the reporting burden to the absolute minimum
on civilian agencies and their service contractors, a phased-in
approach will be used for fixed-price contract awards. Fixed price
contracts will be covered if the estimated total value is at or above
$5 million in FY 2013, $2.5 million in FY 2014, $1 million in FY 2015
and $500,000 in FY 2016 and thereafter.
For indefinite-delivery contracts, including but not limited to,
indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracts, Federal
Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts, Governmentwide Acquisition contracts
(GWACs), and multi-agency contracts, reporting requirements will be
determined based on the expected dollar amount and type of the orders
issued under the contracts.
Existing indefinite-delivery contracts will be bilaterally modified
within six months of the effective date of the final rule if sufficient
time and value remain on the base contract, which is defined as: (1) A
performance period that extends beyond October 1, 2013, and (2) $5
million or more remaining to be obligated to the indefinite-delivery
contract.
B. Discussion of Comment
Comment: One respondent considered the methodology used to
calculate the hours needed to prepare responses and the reporting
requirement estimates in the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) submission
to be grossly underestimated.
Response: The Councils have reviewed the comment and believe the
estimated time to report per contract is
[[Page 16269]]
reasonable at one hour to calculate the data and one hour to enter the
data at www.acquisition.gov. The estimated burden is prepared taking
into consideration the necessary criteria in OMB guidance for
estimating the paperwork burden put on the entity submitting the
information. For example, consideration is given to an entity reviewing
instructions; using technology to collect, process, and disclose
information; adjusting existing practices to comply with requirements;
searching data sources; completing and reviewing the response; and
transmitting or disclosing information. The estimated burden hours for
a collection are based on an average between the hours that a simple
disclosure by a very small business might require and the much higher
numbers that might be required for a very complex disclosure by a major
corporation. Also, the estimated burden hours should only include
projected hours for those actions which a company would not undertake
in the normal course of business. Careful consideration went into
assessing the estimated burden hours for this collection, and although,
the respondent indicated the burden is underestimated, the estimated
burden remains unchanged. At any point, members of the public may
submit comments for further consideration, and are encouraged to
provide data to support their request for an adjustment.
C. Annual Reporting Burden
Respondents: 23,845.
Responses/respondent: 1.
Total annual Responses: 23,845.
Preparation hours per response: 2.
Total response burden hours: 47,690.
Obtaining Copies of Proposals: Requesters may obtain a copy of the
information collection documents from the General Services
Administration, Regulatory Secretariat (MVCB), 1275 First Street NE.,
Washington, DC 20417, telephone 202-501-4755. Please cite OMB Control
No. 9000-0179, Service Contracts Reporting Requirements, in all
correspondence.
Dated: March 8, 2013.
William Clark,
Acting Director, Federal Acquisition Policy Division, Office of
Governmentwide Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition Policy, Office
of Governmentwide Policy.
[FR Doc. 2013-05787 Filed 3-13-13; 8:45 am]
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