[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 17 (Friday, January 25, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5452-5454]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-01557]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[Docket 2012-0076; Sequence 46; OMB Control No. 9000-0083]


Federal Acquisition Regulation; Submission for OMB Review; 
Qualification Requirements

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

ACTION: Notice of reinstatement request for an information collection 
requirement regarding an existing OMB 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 an extension of a 
previously approved information collection requirement concerning 
Qualification Requirements. A notice was published in the Federal 
Register at 77 FR 51784, on August 27, 2012. One respondent submitted 
comments.

DATES: Submit comments on or before February 25, 2013.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by Information Collection 9000-
0083, Qualification Requirements, 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 ``Information Collection 9000-0083, Qualification Requirements''. 
Follow the instructions provided at the ``Submit a Comment'' screen. 
Please include your name, company name (if any), and ``Information 
Collection 9000-0083, Qualification Requirements'' on your attached 
document.
     Fax: 202-501-4067.
     Mail: General Services Administration, Regulatory 
Secretariat (MVCB), 1275 First Street NE., Washington, DC 20417. ATTN: 
Hada Flowers/IC 9000-0083, Qualification Requirements.
    Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite Information 
Collection 9000-0083, Qualification Requirements, in all correspondence 
related to this collection. 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: Ms. Patricia Corrigan, Procurement 
Analyst, Office of Governmentwide Acquisition Policy, GSA, (202) 208-
1963 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Purpose

    FAR subpart 9.2 and the associated clause at FAR 52.209-1, 
implement the statutory requirements of 10 U.S.C. 2319 and 41 U.S.C. 
3311, which allow an agency to establish a qualification requirement 
for testing or other quality assurance demonstration that must be 
completed by an offeror before award of a contract. Under the 
qualification requirements, an end item, or a component thereof, may be 
required to be prequalified. The clause at FAR 52.209-1, Qualification 
Requirements, requires offerors who have met the qualification 
requirements to identify the offeror's name, the manufacturer's name, 
source's name, the item name, service identification, and test number 
(to the extent known). This eliminates the need for an offeror to 
provide new information when the offeror, manufacturer, source, product 
or service covered by qualification requirement has already met the 
standards specified by an agency in a solicitation.
    The contracting officer uses the information to determine 
eligibility for award when the clause at 52.209-1 is included in the 
solicitation. Alternatively, items not yet listed may be considered for 
award upon the submission of evidence of qualification with the offer.

B. Analysis of Public Comments

    One respondent submitted public comments on the extension of the 
previously approved information collection. The analysis of the public 
comments is summarized as follows:
    Comment: The respondent commented that the extension of the 
information collection would violate the fundamental purposes of the 
Paperwork

[[Page 5453]]

Reduction Act because of the burden it puts on the entity submitting 
the information and the agency collecting the information.
    Response: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), 
agencies can request an OMB approval of an existing information 
collection. The PRA requires that agencies use the Federal Register 
notice and comment process, to extend the OMB's approval, at least 
every three years. This extension, to a previously approved information 
collection, pertains to FAR subpart 9.2 and the associated clause at 
FAR 52.209-1. This information collection, which implements the 
statutory requirements of 10 U.S.C. 2319 and 41 U.S.C. 3311, which 
allows an agency to establish a qualification requirement for testing 
or other quality assurance demonstration that must be completed by an 
offeror before award of a contract. Under the qualification 
requirements, an end item, or a component thereof, may be required to 
be prequalified. The clause at FAR 52.209-1, Qualification 
Requirements, requires offerors who have met the qualification 
requirements to identify the offeror's name, the manufacturer's name, 
source's name, the item name, service identification, and test number 
(to the extent known). This eliminates the need for an offeror to 
provide new information when the offeror, manufacturer, source, product 
or service covered by qualification requirement has already met the 
standards specified by an agency in a solicitation. The contracting 
officer uses the information to determine eligibility for award when 
the clause at 52.209-1 is included in the solicitation.
    Comment: The respondent commented that the agency did not 
accurately estimate the public burden challenging that the agency's 
methodology for calculating it is insufficient and inadequate and does 
not reflect the total burden. The respondent stated that ``the Agencies 
estimate that only 2,207 respondents will be subject to this 
requirement annually * * * we respectfully submit that this is greatly 
understated.'' The respondent also took issue with the ``number of 
responses annually per respondent. The Agencies have reduced the prior 
estimate by 95% without any explanation. The current estimate of five 
responses per year is entirely unrealistic.'' Further, the respondent 
found the estimate of 15 minutes per response to be ``unrealistic'' 
indicating that ``a reasonable estimate would be in the range of at 
least two to three hours per response''. For this reason, the 
respondent provided that the agency should reassess the estimated total 
burden hours and revise the estimate upwards to be more accurate. The 
same respondent provided that the burden of compliance with the 
information collection requirement greatly exceeds the agency's 
estimate and outweighs any potential utility of the extension.
    Response: Serious consideration is given, during the open comment 
period, to all comments received and adjustments are made to the 
paperwork burden estimate based on reasonable considerations provided 
by the public. This is evidenced, as the respondent notes, in FAR Case 
2007-006 where an adjustment was made from the total preparation hours 
from three to 60. This change was made considering particularly the 
hours that would be required for review within the company, prior to 
release to the Government.
    The 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.
    Following careful consideration of both the estimated number of 
respondents and the time needed to respond to the information required 
by the clause at FAR 52.209-1, it is determined that an upward 
adjustment is required.
    In response to the respondent's concern that ``the Agencies' 
estimate that only 2,207 respondents will be subject to this 
requirement annually'' was ``greatly understated'', it should be noted 
that the clause at FAR 52.209-1, Qualification Requirements, is used in 
relatively limited circumstances. The clause is prescribed for 
solicitations and contracts only when the acquisition is subject to a 
qualification requirement, which should be rare because of the 
statutory requirement favoring the acquisition of commercial items. 
Further, offerors are only required to provide information in paragraph 
(c) of the clause in cases where the offeror, manufacturer, source, 
product or service covered by a qualification requirement has already 
met the standards specified in the solicitation. Given these limiting 
circumstances and absent receipt of additional data to support the 
respondent's comments, the estimated number of respondents is revised 
from the previous 2,207 to 5 percent or 9,693 of the 193,859 unique 
vendors awarded contracts during Fiscal Year 2011. It is estimated that 
5 percent of the 193,859 vendors would have received awards for 
solicitations in which the clause at FAR 52.209-1 was used and 
contained one or more qualification requirements.
    The respondent also commented on the estimated number of responses 
annually, stating that ``the Agencies have reduced the prior estimate 
by 95% without any explanation. The current estimate of five responses 
per year is entirely unrealistic.'' The estimated number of responses 
annually contained in the currently approved information collection is 
changed from 100, which was based on an estimated number of 
qualification requirements contained in each solicitation, to an 
estimated average of 5 responses per respondent. The estimated number 
of responses refers to the average number of offers received annually 
per respondent for the type of information associated with this 
collection, despite the number of qualification requirements contained 
in a solicitation.
    Lastly, based on the previous explanation of the limited 
circumstances of which this collection applies and the respondent's 
comments, the estimated responses time is revised from 15 minutes to 
one hour. The estimate is an average time for an offeror to complete 
six brief responses of what should be readily available qualification 
documentation regarding one to four qualified products per 
solicitation.

C. Annual Reporting Burden

    There is no Governmentwide data collection process or system, e.g., 
Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) which respondents has been 
raised from 2,207 to 9,693 reflecting an estimate of 5 percent of the 
193,859 new contracts awarded in Fiscal Year 2011. Lastly, the 
estimated Hours per Response is raised from 15 minutes to one hour to 
accommodate an information collection on multiple qualified products in 
each solicitation.
    Respondents: 9,693.
    Responses per Respondent: 5.
    Annual Responses: 48,465.
    Hours per Response: 1.0.
    Total Burden Hours: 48,465.

[[Page 5454]]

    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. 9000-0083, Qualification Requirements, in all correspondences.

    Dated: January 18, 2013.
William Clark,
Acting Director, Federal Acquisition Policy Division, Office of 
Governmentwide Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition Policy, Office 
of Governmentwide Policy.
[FR Doc. 2013-01557 Filed 1-24-13; 8:45 am]
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