On March 7, the FAR Counsel issued a final rule addressing the collection of information about offerors responding to solicitations for federal contracts. The rules amends the FAR to implement § 852 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, which requires that the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) include information regarding any immediate owner or subsidiary and all predecessors of an offeror that held a federal contract or grant within the last three years.
Under this final rule, an offeror must represent and certify whether it is or is not a successor to an entity that held a federal contract within the last three years. The three-year lookback period begins on the day the offeror signs the representation. An offeror that is a successor or predecessor of such an entity must provide that entity's CAGE code and legal name. Contracting officers must consider information in FAPIIS relating to the offeror and "any immediate owner, predecessor, or subsidiary" of the offeror when making a responsibility determination.
The rule applies to all solicitations and resultant contracts, including contracts and subcontracts for acquisitions in amounts not greater than the simplified acquisition threshold, and contracts and subcontracts for the acquisition of commercial items, including commercially available off-the-shelf items. The final rule takes effect on April 6.
Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.
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