A New Compliance Report for Federal Contractors.

• Author: GOUGHNOUR, ROBERTA C.

This report, to be filled out by government contractors, may prove troublesome.

What would the impact be on your business if you lost all of your customers that were government agencies, banks, credit unions (or other finance-related businesses), utility, oil transportation or construction companies? If the answer to this question is "we'd be in real trouble," then you may want to pay close attention to the new regulations being implemented by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance.

The OFCCP monitors federal contractors and subcontractors on their compliance with Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action regulations. If a company is covered and found not in compliance, one of the consequences could be debarment from performing work or doing business with other covered organizations.

For the last two years, the OFCCP has been revamping the way it monitors covered contractors. After years of limited enforcement actions, the OFCCP is now implementing new procedures to ensure contractors comply with Federal Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action requirements.

Before the change in the OFCCP regulations, the only enforcement method authorized by the Code of Federal Regulations was for a federal compliance officer to schedule an onsite desk audit of affected companies. This compliance review could take as long as three days and meant that contractors were audited only periodically; some not for years at a time.

However, in April of this year, the OFCCP began mailing out its new Equal Opportunity survey to all covered contractors. The survey requires contractors to supply detailed demographic and salary information on their employees and on their affirmative action plans to the OFCCP. The OFCCP request limits the response time to supply the information to only 30 days.

Who Qualifies as an Affirmative Action Employer?

The definition of a covered company is:

* A federal contractor or contract with one or more covered federal contractors; and

* Has 50 or more employees; and

* Provides over $50,000 of goods or services under federally subsidized contracts in a 12-month period.

While the company size threshold is fairly straightforward, some companies can meet the $50,000 threshold without realizing they have met the requirements for reporting. Clear indicators that they are or have become a covered contractor may not appear until the OFCCP sends them a request for information. This is because companies can meet the $50,000...