[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 58 (Tuesday, March 26, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18349-18350]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-06856]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[OMB Control No. 9000-0136; Docket 2012-0076; Sequence 63]


Federal Acquisition Regulation; Information Collection; 
Commercial Item Acquisitions

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

ACTION: Notice of request for comments regarding an extension to 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 the 
clauses and provisions required for use in commercial item 
acquisitions.

DATES: Submit comments on or before May 28, 2013.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by Information Collection 9000-
0136, Commercial Item Acquisitions, 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 9000-0136, Commercial Item 
Acquisitions''. Follow the instructions provided at the ``Submit a 
Comment'' screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and 
``Information Collection 9000-0136, Commercial Item Acquisitions'' 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 9000-0136, Commercial Item Acquisitions.
    Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite Information 
Collection 9000-0136, Commercial Item Acquisitions, 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: Mr. Michael O. Jackson, Procurement 
Analyst, Office of Governmentwide Acquisition Policy, GSA (202) 208-
4949 or email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Purpose

    The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 included Title 
VIII, entitled Commercial Items. The title made numerous additions and 
revisions to both the civilian agency and Armed Service acquisition 
statutes to encourage and facilitate the acquisition of commercial 
items and services by Federal Government agencies.
    To implement these changes, DoD, NASA, and GSA amended the Federal 
Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to include several streamlined and 
simplified clauses and provisions to be used in place of existing 
clauses and provisions. They were designed to simplify solicitations 
and contracts for commercial items. Information is used by Federal 
agencies to facilitate the

[[Page 18350]]

acquisition of commercial items and services.
    Pertinent to this information collection is the FAR provision at 
52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items. 
The provision is among the representations and certifications that are 
available for completion in the On-line Representation and 
Certification Application (ORCA) function of the System for Award 
Management (SAM) database. Because an offeror only has to complete 
representations and certifications once on an annual basis, with 
periodic updates, use of the ORCA function by prospective contractors 
decreases the number of responses per respondent per year for purposes 
of this information collection. ORCA was developed to eliminate the 
administrative burden for contractors of submitting the same 
information to various contracting offices, and to establish a common 
source for this information to procurement offices across the 
Government. Prior to ORCA's implementation, prospective contractors 
were required to submit representations and certifications in paper 
form for each individual contract award. Using the ORCA function in 
SAM, a contractor can enter their representations and certification 
information once for use on all Federal contracts. FAR 4.1201(a) 
requires prospective contractors to complete electronic annual 
representations and certifications in conjunction with required 
registration in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR). These 
requiremnts are met through functionality in SAM. The ORCA function 
reuses data pulled from the CCR function and, in many cases, pre-
populates several of the required representations and certifications 
with CCR data. The representations and certifications are effective 
until one year from the date of submission or update to the ORCA 
function in SAM.

B. Annual Reporting Burden

    Because ORCA allows for multiple uses from one entry, i.e., a 
contractor can enter their representations and certification 
information once a year (with any needed updates) for use on all 
Federal contracts, the number of responses per respondent has decreased 
from the currently approved number 34 to 4. For purposes of this 
information collection, initial entry plus three updates are estimated 
as the number of responses per respondent per year, i.e., 4 responses 
per respondent. As of May 2012, there were 162,000 vendors registered 
in the ORCA function of SAM. For purposes of estimation, the number of 
vendors registered in the ORCA function of SAM will serve as the number 
of respondents. Data entry by contractors is estimated at 30 minutes 
per response. As a result, a downward adjustment is being made to the 
estimated annual reporting burden since the notice regarding an 
extension to this clearance published in the Federal Register at 75 FR 
6668, on February 10, 2010.
    Respondents: 162,000.
    Responses per Respondent: 4.
    Total Responses: 648,000.
    Hours per Response: .5.
    Total Burden Hours: 324,000.
    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. 9000-0136 regarding Commercial Item Acquisitions in all 
correspondence.

    Dated: March 20, 2013.
William Clark,
Acting Director, Federal Acquisition Policy, Office of Governmentwide 
Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition Policy, Office of 
Governmentwide Policy.
[FR Doc. 2013-06856 Filed 3-25-13; 8:45 am]
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