[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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