The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact: Caitlin MacNeal,COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER,(202) 347-1122,cmacneal@pogo.org

New Law Paves the Way for Public Review of Contractor Data

WASHINGTON

On July 29, 2010, President Obama signed into law a major advance in
contractor accountability and transparency that quietly made its way
through Congress shepherded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010
contains a provision that requires contractor responsibility data
included in the government's new database, the Federal Awardee
Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), to be posted
publicly on the Internet.

This will open up an immense cache of valuable data regarding
contract- and grant-related civil, criminal, and administrative
responsibility histories of thousands of contractors and grantees that
collectively receive hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars every
year. POGO and 14 other organizations called on Congress to pass this provision in June.

The new law amends the Clean Contracting Act of 2008
(Subtitle G of Public Law 110-417-Oct. 14, 2008) by adding a
requirement for the General Services Administration (GSA) to post all
FAPIIS information, excluding past performance reviews, on a publicly
available website.

"POGO is incredibly pleased to see the government finally heed our
call for the public availability of the contractor responsibility data.
There was never any valid reason to keep this database from the public
in the first place," stated Scott Amey, POGO's general counsel. "We
urge the GSA to waste no time in implementing the law."

The FAPIIS database was modeled on POGO's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database.

The timing of this law is fortunate, given that just last week,
POGO's Freedom of Information Act request for the data included in FAPIIS was denied by the DoD.

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more effective, accountable, open and honest federal government.