[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 121 (Wednesday, June 24, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36341-36343]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-15516]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[OMB Control No. 9000-0177]; [Docket No. 2015-0076; Sequence 27]


Submission to OMB for Review; Federal Acquisition Regulation; 
Reporting Executive Compensation and First-Tier Subcontract Awards

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

[[Page 36342]]


ACTION: Notice of request for a new OMB clearance.

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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the 
Regulatory Secretariat Division will be submitting to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) a request for a new information collection 
requirement for Reporting Executive Compensation and First-tier 
Subcontract Awards. A notice soliciting public comments on the 
information collection was published in the Federal Register at 79 FR 
60468, on October 7, 2014. No comments were received.

DATES: Submit comments on or before July 24, 2015.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by Information Collection 9000-
0177, Reporting Executive Compensation and First-tier Subcontract 
Awards, 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 9000-0177. Select the link ``Comment Now'' that 
corresponds with ``Information Collection 9000-0177, Reporting 
Executive Compensation and First-tier Subcontract Awards.'' Follow the 
instructions provided at the ``Comment Now'' screen. Please include 
your name, company name (if any), and ``Information Collection 9000-
0177, Reporting Executive Compensation and First-tier Subcontract 
Awards'' on your attached document.
     Mail: General Services Administration, Regulatory 
Secretariat Division (MVCB), ATTN: Ms. Flowers, 1800 F Street NW., 
Washington, DC 20405.
     Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite 
``Information Collection 9000-0177, Reporting Executive Compensation 
and First-tier Subcontract Awards,'' 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. Mahruba Uddowla, Procurement 
Analyst, Office of Government-wide Policy, contact via telephone 703-
605-2868 or email to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Purpose

    The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act 
(``Transparency Act''), Public Law 109-282, as amended by section 6202 
of Public Law 110-252, was enacted to reduce ``wasteful and unnecessary 
spending'' by requiring that OMB establish a free, public, online 
database containing full disclosure of all Federal contract award 
information for awards of $25,000 or more.
    DoD, GSA, and NASA published an interim rule for public comment at 
75 FR 39414, on July 8, 2010, to implement the Transparency Act 
reporting requirements. The rule requires the insertion of FAR clause 
52.204-10, Reporting Executive Compensation and First-Tier Subcontract 
Awards, in solicitations and contracts (including commercial item 
contracts and commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) item 
contracts) of $25,000 or more.
    The clause at 52.204-10 requires, unless otherwise directed by the 
contracting officer, for first-tier subcontracts valued at $25,000 or 
more, prime contractors to report first-tier subcontract award data 
(e.g., name, amount, address, etc.). If the contractor in the previous 
tax year had gross income, from all sources, under $300,000, the 
contractor is exempt from the requirement to report first-tier 
subcontractor awards. If a first-tier subcontractor in the previous tax 
year had gross income from all sources under $300,000, the contractor 
does not need to report awards to that first-tier subcontractor. 
Contractors will provide these subcontract reports to the Federal 
Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System 
(FSRS) (http://www.fsrs.gov). DoD, GSA, and NASA note that there is 
pre-population of some data in FSRS from other Government systems.
    The clause at 52.204-10 also requires a contractor to report in the 
System for Award Management (SAM) database at https://www.sam.gov, the 
names and total compensation of each of its five most highly 
compensated executives for the contractor's preceding completed fiscal 
year. Contractors and first-tier subcontractors are not required to 
report the total compensation information required by the rule, 
unless--
    (i) In the contractor or subcontractor's preceding fiscal year, the 
contractor or subcontractor received--
    (l) 80 percent or more of its annual gross revenues in Federal 
contracts (and subcontracts), loans, grants (and subgrants), 
cooperative agreements; and
    (2) $25,000,000 or more in annual gross revenue from Federal 
contracts (and subcontracts), loans, grants (and subgrants), 
cooperative agreements; and
    (ii) The public does not have access to information about the 
compensation of the executives through periodic reports filed under 
section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 
U.S.C. 78m(a), 78o(d)) or section 6104 of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986. (To determine if the public has access to the compensation 
information, see the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission total 
compensation filings at http://www.sec.gov/answers/execomp.htm.)

B. Annual Reporting Burden

    The total annual burden associated with the reporting requirements 
of FAR 52.204-10 is estimated to be $33,230,972.
    1. Reporting first-tier subcontract award information. The FY13 
Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) data collected for new contract 
actions valued at $25,000 or greater, indicated that there were 155,292 
contractors with unique DUNS numbers. It is estimated that based on the 
exemptions in the rule (e.g., contractors in the previous tax year with 
less than $300,000 in gross income do not have to report), seventy-five 
percent of the contractors with actions valued at $25,000 or greater 
would be subject to the reporting requirements, which would be 116,469 
contractors. The burden to report the subcontractor award information 
(e.g., name, amount, address, etc.) under FAR 52.204-10 is estimated to 
average 2 hours per response for a prime contractor and approximately 
three first-tier subcontractors per prime contractor. We estimate the 
total annual public cost burden for these elements to be $30,747,816 
based on the following:
    Respondents: 116,469.
    Responses per respondent: 3.
    Total annual responses: 349,407.
    Preparation hours per response: 2.
    Total response burden hours: 698,814.
    Average hourly wages: ($33.00 + 36.25% overhead. Rounded to nearest 
dollar): $45.00
    Estimated cost to the public: $30,747,816
    2. Reporting executive compensation. There were 367,875 active 
registrants in SAM as of September 17, 2014. Of the 367,875 total 
active registrants, 360,000 were screened out by two questions 
supporting the rule's requirements, i.e., didn't have 80% or more of 
their annual gross revenue in U.S. Federal contracts, grants, and/or 
cooperative agreements and didn't make more than $25 million in annual 
gross revenue, or did have 80% or $25 million from Federal contracts/
grants/cooperative agreements, but the public already had access to the 
information. It is estimated that it would require those 360,000

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registrants 0.10 hours per response, for a total of 36,000 response 
hours.
    A total of 7,875 SAM registrants would be required to enter actual 
values for their top five most highly compensated executives. It is 
estimated that it would require these 7,875 registrants 2.5 hours to 
provide the information required, for a total of 19,688 response hours.
    Therefore, it is estimated that the total population of respondents 
is 367,875, and the total estimated response hours is 55,688, resulting 
in a weighted average of 0.15 hours per respondent for executive 
compensation reporting.
    The Councils estimate the total annual public cost burden for this 
element to be $2,483,156 based on the following:
    Respondents: 367,875.
    Responses per respondent: 1.
    Total annual responses: 367,875.
    Preparation hours per response: 0.15.
    Total response burden hours: 55,181.
    Average hourly wages: ($33.06+36.25%overhead): $45.00
    Estimated cost to the public: $2,483,156.
    Based on the above calculations, DoD, GSA, and NASA estimate the 
total annual burden associated with reporting requirements of FAR 
52.204-10 to be $33,323,972. The reporting burden includes the time for 
reviewing instructions, and reporting the data. It does not cover the 
time required to conduct research or the time to obtain the information 
for the data elements.

C. Public Comments

    Public comments are particularly invited on: Whether this 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
functions of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), and whether it 
will have practical utility; whether our estimate of the public burden 
of this collection of information is accurate, and based on valid 
assumptions and methodology; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 
clarity of the information to be collected; and ways in which we can 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are 
to respond, through the use of appropriate technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.
    Obtaining Copies of Proposals: Requesters may obtain a copy of the 
supporting statement from the General Services Administration, 
Regulatory Secretariat Division (MVCB), 1800 F Street NW., Washington, 
DC 20405, telephone 202-501-4755. Please cite OMB Control No. 9000-
0177, Reporting Executive Compensation and First-tier Subcontract 
Awards, in all correspondence.

     Dated: June 18, 2015.
Edward Loeb,
Acting Director, Federal Acquisition Policy Division, Office of 
Governmentwide Acquisition Policy, Office of Acquisition Policy, Office 
of Governmentwide Policy.
[FR Doc. 2015-15516 Filed 6-23-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6820-EP-P