FedGovContracts.com

Barry McVay's FEDERAL CONTRACTS DISPATCH

DATE: October 3, 2000

FROM: Barry McVay, CPCM

SUBJECT: Office of Management and Budget; Availability of Year 2000 Agency Inventories Under the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act of 1998

SOURCE: Federal Register, October 3, 2000, Vol. 65, No. 192, page 59026

AGENCIES: Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

ACTION: Notice of Availability

SYNOPSIS: OMB is announcing that the Commercial Activities Inventories required to be compiled by Public Law 105-270, Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act of 1998 (FAIR Act), are now available to the public from several federal agencies.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The FAIR Act was first used to compile inventories for 1999. Because of the number of complaints about the process, the General Accounting Office (GAO) analyzed the inventories of five agencies and concluded that "the clarity and understandability of the five FAIR Act inventories...was limited" (see the April 24, 2000, FEDERAL CONTRACTS DISPATCH "General Accounting Office; Limited Understandability of FAIR Act Inventories").

On April 27, 2000, OMB issued revised guidance on the preparation of inventories because "the quality of the inventories ranged from fair to poor" (see the May 5, 2000, FEDERAL CONTRACTS DISPATCH "Office of Management and Budget Circular No. A-76, Performance of Commercial Activities, Transmittal Memorandum Number 22, Technical Changes to the Revised Supplemental Handbook"). In addition, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, which is part of OMB, has prepared a summary FAIR Act User's Guide and is making it available on its Internet site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/procurement/index.html. This User's Guide is intended to help interested parties review the Year 2000 FAIR Act inventories, and the User's Guide also includes the web-site addresses to access agency inventories.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION: Section 2 of the FAIR Act requires that each agency submit a list of government activities it is performing which are not "inherently governmental functions", and that OMB publish an announcement of public availability of these lists, called "Commercial Activities Inventories," upon completion of its review of the agencies' inventory submissions. OMB has completed its review of the inventories submitted by the following agencies:

OMB has not completed the review of the inventories submitted by any federal cabinet departments, except for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Additional announcements will be published as OMB completes the review process for the inventories of other departments and agencies. Interested parties have 30 working days from today (that is, until November 15) to challenge the omission or inclusion of an activity on an agency's the Commercial Activities Inventories list.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Barry McVay at 703-451-5953 or by e-mail to BarryMcVay@FedGovContracts.com.

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