Federal contractors that hold a contract of $50,000 or more and employ 50 or more employees must develop and maintain Affirmative Action Programs (AAP) pursuant to Executive Order 11246 and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. If a contractor has at least 50 employees and holds a contract of $150,000 or more, then it must also develop an AAP pursuant to the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974. In GAO Report 16-750, published in September 2016, the Government Accountability Office found that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) “has no process for ensuring that the tens of thousands of establishments that have signed a qualifying federal contract have developed an AAP within 120 days of the commencement of the contract, or updated it annually.”
Last week, the OFCCP opened its Contractor Portal as a platform where covered Federal contractors and subcontractors must certify whether they are meeting their requirement to develop and maintain annual AAPs. Although certification by a contractor that it has developed and annually updated its AAP(s) will not exempt it from compliance evaluations, scheduled contractors will also be able to use the Contractor Portal to upload their AAP(s) during a compliance evaluation.
Existing contractors may register starting February 1, 2022. The certification features in the portal will be available on March 31, 2022. By June 30, 2022, existing contractors must certify whether they have developed and maintained an affirmative action program for each establishment and/or functional unit, as applicable. New contractors have 120 days to develop their AAP(s), and must register and certify compliance through the Contractor Portal within 90 days of developing their AAP(s). Contractors can register for the Contractor Portal by creating a www.login.gov account using an email and a secure password for entry into the portal. To register, contractors will be required to enter their Employer Identification Number (EIN) and EEO-1 Headquarter/Company Number and Establishment/Unit Number.
For any further analysis of how this OFCCP action will affect your interests, or if you have any questions on this article, please feel free to contact Ryan O. Hemminger..
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