Procurement by the Department of Agriculture is subject to the FPR (Chapter 1 of this title) except as may be otherwise authorized by law. § 4-1.104-2 Of Agriculture Procurement Regulations. AGPR are prescribed for application to procurement of administrative and operating supplies, equipment, and services, for consumption or use by the Department in carrying out its programs. Certain program functions of the Department are, by reason of special law, exempt from pertinent parts of these regulations; however, they shall be applicable to such functions, insofar as it is feasible, consistent with efficient program operations. § 4-1.105 Exclusions. Those parts of AGPR which are deemed necessary for business concerns, and others properly interested, to understand basic and significant Department procurement regulations which implement, supplement, or deviate from the FPR are published (in Title 41) in the FEDERAL REGISTER. Detailed instructions of interest primarily for internal agency guidance are not so published. [30 F.R. 14374, Nov. 17, 1965] § 4-1.106-3 Code arrangement. AGPR are issued in the Code of Federal Regulations as Chapter 4 of Title 41, Public Contracts, implementing and supplementing Chapter 1, which constitutes the FPR. § 4-1.107-1 General plan. The general plan, numbering system, and nomenclature used in the AGPR conform with FEDERAL REGISTER standards approved for the FPR. § 4-1.107-2 Numbering. The numbering system permits identification of every unit. The first digit, "4", represents the chapter allocated to the Department, followed by a dash. This is followed by the part number (which may be one or more digits) followed by a decimal point. The numbers after the decimal point represent, respectively, the subpart, section (in two digits), and, after the dash, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph, and further inferior divisions. For example, this division is called "section 4-1.107-2", in which the first digit denotes the chapter, the second the part, the third the subpart, the fourth and fifth the section, and the sixth the subsection. § 4-1.107-3 Citation. AGPR will be cited in accordance with approved FEDERAL REGISTER standards. Thus, this section, when referred to formally in official documents such as legal briefs should be cited as "41 CFR 4-1.1073." Any section of AGPR may be informally identified for purposes of brevity, as "AGPR" followed by the section number, such as "AGPR 4-1.107-3." § 4-1.108 Agency implementation. As portions of AGPR material are prescribed, agencies within the Department may publish in the FEDERAL REGISTER implementing regulations deemed necessary, as outlined in § 4-1.106-2 of this chapter. Detailed instructions of interest primarily for internal agency guidance will not be published in the FEDERAL REGISTER. All implementing regulations shall be prepared to conform with FPR style and arrangement, except that the loose-leaf format may be in a single column per page. Regulations or instructions issued by agencies of the Department will be identified by the use of alphabetical suffixes with the chapter number, as follows: 4A Agricultural Marketing Service. 4B Agricultural Research Service. 4C Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. proval of such deviations may be initiated by the heads of Department agencies and the heads of their procuring activities, as defined in § 1-1.206. They shall be submitted to the Office of Plant and Operations. The requests shall cite the specific part of the FPR or AGPR from which it is desired to deviate, shall set forth the nature of the deviations, and shall give the reasons for the action requested. (b) If a requested deviation is considered appropriate, approval will be accomplished as follows: (1) Where the deviation applies to an individual case, approval will be granted by memorandum addressed to the requesting officer with copies to interested offices. The contract file of the requesting office shall include a copy of the request and approval. (2) Where the deviation applies to a class of cases, necessary coordination with the General Services Administration will be accomplished by the Office of Plant and Operations. The deviation may be issued as a part of AGPR, or the agency concerned may be authorized to issue internal instructions which incorporate the deviation. (c) The requesting office will be notified by memorandum, with copies to other interested offices, whenever a requested deviation is disapproved. (d) In emergency situations involving individual cases, deviation approvals may be processed by telephone and later confirmed in writing. (e) Requests for deviations may be made at any time. New FPR issuances should be reviewed upon receipt, so that requests for deviations can be acted upon prior to the effective date, whenever practicable. § 4-1.110 Relationship of AGPR to the FPR. (a) AGPR Chapter 4 implements and supplements the FPR and is part of the Federal Procurement Regulations system. Material published in the FPR having Government-wide applicability becomes effective throughout the Department of Agriculture upon the effective date of the particular FPR material. Such material generally will not be repeated, paraphrased, or otherwise restated in Chapter 4. (b) Implementing material is that which expands upon related FPR material. Supplementing material is that for which there is no counterpart in the FPR. (c) Material in Chapter 4 may deviate from the FPR when a deviation (see § 4-1.109) is authorized and is explicitly referenced to the FPR. Where Chapter 4 contains no material implementing the FPR, the FPR alone will govern. § 4-1.111 Administrative Regulations. (a) General. The Administrative Regulations of the Department contain the continuing policies, authorities and operating regulations issued by the Secretary of Agriculture and administrative staff officers having general application to the agencies or employees of the Department. (b) Arrangement. The complete Administrative Regulations consist of the following Titles: Title 1-General Authorities and Functions. Title 4-Plant and Operations. Title 6-Budget. Title 7-Accounting. (c) References. Each Title is further subdivided, basically, into chapters, sections, and paragraphs. Editorial references to the Administrative Regulations in this Chapter 4 are made to the title: e.g., "Title 1 of the Administrative Regulations", or "1 AR". Reference to specific text is to paragraphs: e.g., "1 AR 252" or "5 AR 622". (d) Availability. Complete sets of AR are usually available at regional and state offices of Department agencies, and are available to the public for inspection, subject to the provisions of Title 7, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 1, Subpart A, §§ 1.1 to 1.6 (1 AR 534-538). § 4-1.112 Federal Property ment Regulations. Manage 41, Code of Federal Regulations, will correspond to their chapter assignments in the FPR System except that the number "100" will be added. For example, the Federal Procurement Regulations have been assigned Chapter 1 in the FPR System and the Federal Property Management Regulations will have Chapter 101 in the FPMR System. This Department has been assigned Chapter 4 (AGPR) in the FPR System and in the FPMR System will have Chapter 104 (AGPMR). (b) References in AGPR to specific text in the FPMR will be, for example, "§ 101-xx.xx" for sections or "Subpart 101-xx.x" for subparts. The same references to AGPMR would then be "§ 104xx.x" and "Subpart 104-xx.x" respectively. [32 F.R. 1177, Feb. 2, 1967] Subpart 4-1.3-General Policies § 4-1.302 § 4-1.302-1 General. It is the policy to assure that supplies and services procured by the Department are restricted to those minimum requirements in terms of economy and efficiency that are adequate to meet the needs of the using programs. § 4-1.302-3 Contracts between the Government and Government employees or business concerns substantially owned or controlled by Government employees. (a) Policy. Contracts between the Government and its employees are not prohibited generally by statute, but only where an employee acts as an agent both for the Government and the contractor in the transaction of business (see 18 U.S.C. 208) or where the services to be rendered under a contract with an employee is such as could have been required of him in his official capacity (see 5 U.S.C. 5535, 5536; formerly 5 U.S.C. 69, 70). However, aside from any statutory prohibition, contracts between the Government and its employees are open to criticism for possible favoritism and preferential treatment and should not, therefore, be made except for the most cogent reasons and under no circumstances where the needs of the Government reasonably can be otherwise supplied. The hire or rental of equipment from employees is generally prohibited. The relationship of landlord |