Federal Contractor Performance Database to be Publicly Accessible Online

Earlier this year, a new database was created that tracks contractors' past performance in order to help federal agencies make responsibility determinations when awarding contracts. New legislation signed this past summer means that large portions of this database will be publicly posted on the Internet. 

The Database (FAPIIS):  In April of 2010, the "Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System" (FAPIIS) took effect (having been originated by the Clean Contracting Act of 2008, a part of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act). The system is designed to facilitate consideration of past contractor performance when making contract award decisions.
 

Consolidation of Sources:  FAPIIS pulls information from a number of existing sources, including:

• Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS)
• Central Contractor Registry (CCR)
• Excluded Parties List System (EPLS)
• Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS)

Data Included in FAPIIS:  FAPIIS contains contractor information (for the past five years) relating to:

• past performance evaluations
• civil, criminal, and administrative proceedings
• suspensions and debarments
• non-responsibility or recipient not-qualified determinations
• terminations for default, cause, or material failure to comply
• defective pricing determinations
• administrative agreements issued in lieu of suspensions and debarments

Access to FAPIIS:  Since it was designed to be used to help the federal government make responsibility determinations, FAPIIS was originally intended to be restricted to federal employees involved in contract award decisions, select members of congress, and individual contractors (to verify their own information). However, just a few months after FAPIIS went into effect, a minor provision of the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010 amended the use of the database to provide that "... the Administrator shall post all such information, excluding past performance reviews, on a publicly available Internet website."

Mixed Response:  As might be expected, there has been a mixed response to publicly releasing FAPIIS online (most notably, the Professional Services Council, a trade association of government contractors, has expressed concerns about the the release). No date has been set for the launch of the public, online version of FAPIIS. 

More Information:  For more information about FAPIIS, check out the following resources:

• Coverage of the issue on the Federal Construction Contracting Blog
• A short article focusing on response to the change from the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center
• A more in-depth article from the National Contract Management Association
• The text of the part of the bill establishing the FAPIIS (Section 872 of S.3001, the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009)

Mike Purdy's Public Contracting Blog 

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