Documents

COMMENT PERIOD REOPENED
Federal Acquisition Regulation; FAR Case 2007-018, Organizational
Conflicts of Interest

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

ACTION: Advance notice of proposed rulemaking; Reopening of comment
period.

“Trust, Ethics and the Technology Factor”
or
“If I had wanted to be a CIO,
I would not have gone to law school....”

A CLE Ethics Presentation
for the Arizona Bankruptcy Bar

State Bar of Arizona 2008 Bar Convention
Living Our Legacy 1933-2008
The 75th Annual State Bar Convention
June 20, 2008

"If I'd wanted to be a CIO, I wouldn't have gone to law school" is the subtitle of the presentation given at the Arizona State Bar Convention about the ethical trouble lawyers can get into using current technology. The lengthy presentation is available upon request on the documents and resources page.
GM

SUMMARY: The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense
Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) are seeking comments on
changes to the proposed rule, FAR Case 2007-006, Contractor Compliance
Program and Integrity Reporting, published in the Federal Register at
72 FR 64019, November 14, 2007, for which the initial comment period
has closed, that may be included in the final rule. The Councils do not
contemplate publishing a final or interim rule until public comments
are received and considered on the specific changes discussed further
in this document.

On June 9, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court voted unanimously in favor of restricting the whistleblower provisions of the U.S. False Claims Act. Now, the Court ruled, a whistleblower needs to prove that there was more than just a false statement involved in any sort of government fund or contract. Instead, an employee must prove that the company “intended that the false statement is ‘material’.”
The ruling stems from a case involving Navy contractors building destroyers. The Navy contracted with two different shipyards, which required generators. The shipyards subcontracted with Allison Engine Company to build the generators with bases and enclosures. Allison subcontracted with General Tool Co. (GTC) to assemble the generators, and GTC in turn outsourced the work of building the generators' bases and enclosures to yet another firm, SOFCO. All of the subcontracts reportedly included clauses that required products to have a “certificate of performance,” guaranteeing they met Navy standards. Under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, two GTC employees blew the whistle on Allison and the subcontractor that built the bases and enclosures, for allegedly issuing certificates of performance under false pretenses.
A federal appeals court sided with the two employees, but the Supreme Court overturned that decision sending it back to the lower courts.

The official syllabus follows and the full opinion is available at http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-214.ZO.html

A Link to Quick Tips on Avoiding Identity Theft

http://www.switched.com/2008/04/16/top-tips-to-avoid-identity-theft-1/

SUMMARY: The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense
Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule
amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to address the
requirements for a contractor code of business ethics and conduct and
the display of Federal agency Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
Fraud Hotline Posters.

With the support of new federal rules governing ethics and compliance programs for government contractors (72 Fed. Reg. 7588 and 65,873 - FAR proposed rule scheduled to go into effect on December 24, 2007)


[Federal Register: November 23, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 225)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Page 65873-65882]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr23no07-13]

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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

48 CFR Parts 2, 3, and 52

[FAC 2005-22; FAR Case 2006-007; Item II; Docket 2007-0001; Sequence 1]
RIN 9000-AK67


Federal Acquisition Regulation; FAR Case 2006-007, Contractor
Code of Business Ethics and Conduct

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

ACTION: Final rule.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense
Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) have agreed on a final rule
amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to address the
requirements for a contractor code of business ethics and conduct and
the display of Federal agency Office of the Inspector General (OIG)
Fraud Hotline Posters.

DATES: Effective Date: December 24, 2007

[Federal Register: February 16, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 32)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 7588-7590]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr16fe07-20]

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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

48 CFR Parts 2, 3, and 52

[FAR Case 2006-007; Docket 2007-0001; Sequence 1]
RIN 9000-AK67


Federal Acquisition Regulation; FAR Case 2006-007, Contractor
Code of Ethics and Business Conduct

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

ACTION: Proposed rule with request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense
Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) are proposing to amend the
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to address Contractor Code of
Ethics and Business Conduct and the display of Federal agency Office of
the Inspector General (OIG) Fraud Hotline Poster.

DATES: Interested parties should submit written comments to the FAR
Secretariat on or before April 17, 2007 to be considered in the
formulation of a final rule.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by FAR case 2006-007 by any of
the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.Search
for any document by first selecting the

proper document types and selecting ``Federal Acquisition Regulation''
as the agency of choice. At the ``Keyword'' prompt, type in the FAR
case number (for example, FAR Case 2006-007) and click on the
``Submit'' button. Please include any personal and/or business
information inside the document.You may also search for any document by
clicking on the ``Advanced search/document search'' tab at the top of
the screen, selecting from the agency field ``Federal Acquisition
Regulation'', and typing the FAR case number in the keyword field.
Select the ``Submit'' button.
Fax: 202-501-4067.
Mail: General Services Administration, Regulatory
Secretariat (VIR), 1800 F Street, NW, Room 4035, ATTN: Laurieann
Duarte, Washington, DC 20405.
Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite FAR case 2006-
007 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. Ernest Woodson, Procurement
Analyst, at (202) 501-3775 for clarification of content. For
information pertaining to status or publication schedules, contact the
FAR Secretariat at (202) 501-4755. Please cite FAR case 2006-007.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Background

FAR Part 3 provides guidance on improper business practices and
personal conflicts of interest, but it does not discuss the
contractor's responsibilities with regard to code of ethics and
business conduct and the avoidance of improper business practices.
Currently, three agencies (the Departments of Defense, Veterans
Affairs, and the Environmental Protection Agency) maintain policy for
contractor code of ethics and business conduct and the contractor's
responsibility to avoid improper business practices. With few
exceptions, the agencies' clauses and prescriptions are very similar to
one another, in that they- establish agency policy and recommend
contents of a contractor's system of management and internal controls
in connection with Government contracts; establish contract dollar
thresholds for display of the agency Inspector General poster; provide
instructions for obtaining the hotline posters; and provide exemptions
to displaying posters. However, the agencies' policies differ on the
contract dollar thresholds and the address and phone number of the
Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to obtain a fraud hotline poster.
In view of the significant sums of Federal dollars spent by
agencies to acquire goods and services, this rule establishes a clear
and consistent policy regarding contractor code of ethics and business
conduct, responsibility to avoid improper business practices, and
procedures for displaying an agency OIG Fraud Hotline poster to
facilitate the reporting of wrongdoing in Federal contracting. This
rule also recognizes the need for agencies to cooperate with the
Department of Homeland Security to ensure that contracts funded with
disaster assistance funds require display of any event-specific fraud
hotline posters announcing ad hoc or other special hotline reporting
information applicable to the specific contract. This rule proposes
amending the FAR to add FAR Subpart 3.10, Contractor Code of Ethics and
Business Conduct, that will--
1. Define the ``United States'' to mean the 50 States, the District
of Columbia and outlying areas as used in FAR 25.003, and exclude
contracts performed outside the United States from the requirements of
the rule.
2. Include policy stating that contractors ``should'' have a code
of ethics and business conduct.
3. Exclude commercial item contracts awardedpursuant to FAR Part 12
from the requirements of the rule, because the rule will not implement
statute or executive order, and because ethics programs and hotline
posters are not standard commercial practices as stipulated by the
Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act.
4. Provide that contractors receiving awards inexcess of $5,000,000
that have performance periods of 120 days or more, shall have a written
code of ethics and business conduct within 30 days after contract
award. Furthermore, the contractor shall promote compliance by
establishing, within 90 days after contract award, an employee ethics
and compliance training program and an internal control system
proportionate to the size of the company and extent of its business
with the Federal Government.
5. Provide that contractors receiving awards inexcess of $5,000,000
shall

[[Page 7589]]

The executive summary of Challenges Facing Ethics and Compliance, a research report done by Ethos International in 2007.

An article by Grace in the September 2007 Privacy & Data Security Law Journal.