Efforts" and small and minority business Program Clauses have been replaced by the 95-507 clauses and thus were eliminated from contracts with small businesses. Finally, as I stated, Section 222 was superceded by P.L. 96-83. That law requires OFPP to develop and submit to the Congress a plan for a Uniform Procurement System (UPS). That plan will fully take into account the special needs of small and small disadvantaged businesses. The experience gained under the Small Business Act, P.L. 95-507, and the recommendations of the upcoming White House Conference on Small Business will be analyzed as the UPS is developed. 3. On March 7, 1979, OFPP issued Policy Letter 79-1 to all agencies requiring establishment of an Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization and required each agency to report back to OFPP within 90 days of steps taken to implement the provisions of that letter. Have all agencies reported to you in accordance with your March 7 request? Please explain what actions OFPP has taken to enforce compliance where same is not evident. Also, provide this subcommittee with a list of all agency Directors of SADBUS, including a designation of whether they are fulltime. ANSWER. To date, all of the major (18) procuring agencies, with the exception of DOD, sent written responses to 79-1. HUD replied that they had not made a final decision on the Office and that several administrative and management opinions were being studied. Since that time, OFPP has been assured by Tom Wittleton, Chief of Procurement, and recently by Terrence Duvernay, Special Assistant to the Secretary, that their Office has been established and the Director would be named immediately. Mr. Duvernay has been acting in that capacity until a Director is named. He also informed OFPP that this information has been discussed with Congressman Parren Mitchell's office. The State Department has had Morton Albaugh under contract to set up the Office while acting as Director. According to Mr. L'heureux, Chief of Supply and Transportation Division, personnel is drawing up the papers for Albaugh to corne on board as Acting Director. EPA reported the establishment of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization and the selection of the Director to be through the merit process. To date, no Director has been named. It is reported to OFPP that Margie Wilson is acting in that capacity. EPA reports their delay in appointing a Director has been caused by the decision to consider the opportunity of expanding the office to include construction grant activities for minorities and women. That review has been completed and the decision will be made by the Administration by the end of January 1980. Agriculture reported on July 11, 1979, that its office had been established with Preston Davis as Acting Director. Mr. Davis reports to the Secretary through the Assistant Secretary for Administration in her capacity as Deputy to the Secretary for Small and Disadvantaged Business. In VA's May 31, 1979, letter, it reported establishing the office with Robert Vaughn as Director of SDBU as well as Assistant Deputy Administrator for Administration and Logistics. Although we have received no formal written responses from DOD, it is well known that Dale Church is Director of its office as well as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. OFPP has discussed the situation of part-time Directors at DOD and VA with the Deputy Director of OMB. We anticipate a resolution of those problems soon. A list of agency Directors of SADBUS is attached. 4. Please describe the extent of federal agency compliance in responding to your September 7, 1979, request for information regarding each agency's progress in implementing Section 211 of P.L. 95-507. Also describe what actions OFPP took when it discovered that most of the agencies were not in compliance with the law. ANSWER. All the major procuring agencies have responded except the Departments of State and Justice. Justice Department reported it cannot provide the number of solicitations and awards before January 15, 1980. November 15 is the date Justice began requiring P.L. 95-507 subcontracting plans. We are continuing to follow-up with the State Department for the September 7, 1979, information regarding their agency's progress in implementing Section 211 of P.L. 95-507. OFPP's response to the results of the September 7, 1979, survey was to order the more complete November 21, 1979, survey and review and modification of solicitations and contracts discussed below. 5. An OFPP internal memorandum dated October 24, 1979, regarding updates on agency responses to your September 7, 1979 data request states that, "most of the agencies did not require the 95-507 clauses until the summer of 1979 and have made no awards. The total solicitations with the 95-507 clauses are 441 with only 80 contracts awarded. 68 of the awards are from Energy. The other awards are from Treasury (2), DOT (1), and Interior (9)." (a) What action did you take subsequent thereto to ensure compliance; (b) what responses did you receive from Justice, State and TVA which according to that memo had not responded as of that date; (c) please provide a copy of USDA's response which was stated to be due on October 27; and (d) has Treasury in fact required the subcontracting awards indicated in their response? ANSWER. (a) The responses to the OFPP September 7 data request, along with the October 19, 1979 Comptroller General Opinion addressed to you, prompted OFPP, in addition to stepping up work with the agencies on implementation problems, to ask for a fuller accounting of the implementation process. OFPP also directed the agencies to review and modify all outstanding solicitations issued after the date of the agency implementing regulations without the required provisions to include the subcontracting provisions, and to do the same with contracts, where feasible. This request was contained in the November 21 memorandum to heads of departments and agencies. We will provide a report on the results of this action to the Subcommittee. As mentioned above, Justice required the 95-507 clause on November 15, 1979, and will provide the number of solicitations and awards with the clause by January 15, 1980. OFPP has resolicited the information from the State Department. The TVA response was 41 awards, and probably a greater number of solicitations. (c) The response from USDA is attached. (d) Treasury reports that information regarding the two awards were taken from data submitted for the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS). They indicated the likelihood that more than two such awards would have been reported if their procurement register had been manually reviewed. However, this would have taken two weeks. A manual review of the procurement register is being conducted now for their January 15, 1980, report to OFPP. 6. OFPP Policy Letter 79-3 set forth the uniform policy guidance for the federal agencies and departments to establish goals for the participation by small and minority business in procurement contracts, as well as in the performance of subcontracts. Please describe the responses of the agencies and departments to that policy letter, including actions taken by OFPP to ensure full compliance therewith. ANSWER. Policy Letter 79-3 was coordinated with the procuring agencies prior to its issuance. The initial data was due to be received by the SBA by December 31, 1979. We anticipate no unusual problems in complying with the policy letter. 7. When does OFPP intend to issue detailed instructions on the implementation of that portion of Section 221 of the law dealing with procurements of under $10,000? ANSWER. As stated in my testimony, the implementation of Section 221 has been delayed pending the completion by the SBA of the rule-making procedure, including public comment, on the definition of small business for the purpose of that section. SBA has informed us that the final rule is now being reviewed by their Inspector General and its promulgation can be expected shortly. As soon as that rule is promulgated, OFPP will issue Section 221 implementing regulation. Sincerely, James D. Currie |