[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 232 (Monday, December 2, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63820-63821]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-30632]
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COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR SEVERELY DISABLED
Procurement List Addition
AGENCY: Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely
Disabled.
ACTION: Addition to the Procurement List.
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SUMMARY: This action adds to the Procurement List a service to be
furnished by nonprofit agencies employing persons who are blind or have
other severe disabilities.
EFFECTIVE DATE: January 2, 1997.
ADDRESSES: Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely
Disabled, Crystal Square 3, Suite 403, 1735 Jefferson Davis Highway,
Arlington, Virginia 22202-3461.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Milkman (703) 603-7740.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On April 26, 1996, the Committee for
Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled published
notice (61 F.R. 18571) of proposed addition to the Procurement List.
Comments were received from the current contractor at both its local
and parent corporation levels, its legal counsel, a trade association,
two Members of Congress, and the mayors of the two communities in the
area where the service will be performed. Concerns were expressed about
both the impact the addition to the Procurement List would have on the
current contractor and its employees, and the capability of the
designated nonprofit agency to perform the laundry service.
On the question of impact, several commenters claimed that the
local branch of the current contractor would lose considerable business
and be forced to lay off workers. Objections were made to the
Committee's focus on the entire business enterprise of a contractor,
including the parent corporation, as the entity on which impact is
assessed, and the Committee's failure to solicit information directly
from the contractor's local operation or to assess the impact of this
addition to the Procurement List on the local economy.
The Committee looks at an entire business enterprise because the
contractor can use other assets to support a local branch or to
compensate for business losses there if it chooses. The Committee is
not required to provide direct notice of its proposed actions to
affected parties, as opposed to notice in the Federal Register, and
frequently bases its initial impact assessment on current financial
data from a reporting service, as occurred in this case.
Even if the Committee were to confine its impact analysis to the
local branch of the current contractor's business, the figures the
commenters have given, which are not consistent with each other, do not
show an impact which reaches the level the Committee normally considers
to be severe adverse impact. In addition, the Committee has reduced the
scope of the Procurement List addition from what was proposed by
eliminating the base laundry service, so only the hospital laundry
service will be added, which should further minimize impact on the
contractor and its employees. The contractor has only held short-term
contracts for the hospital laundry service over the past two years, and
the values of the contracts have been decreasing due to base
downsizing. Consequently, the Committee does not believe the addition
will have a severe adverse impact on the contractor or its employees.
The commenters did not provide information to show an impact on the
local economy, so the Committee has not assessed that impact, in
accordance with the regulatory requirement at 41 CFR 51-2.4(a)(4)(i)(C)
to address impact matters other than financial impact on the current
contractor and the contractor's dependency on the contract over time
only if substantive comments are received on those other impact
matters.
Commenters also claimed that the legislative history of the
Committee's statute shows that Congress did not intend for the
Committee's program to have any impact on contractors, citing the
legislative history of the 1938 act as interpreted by a 1970 court
decision. However, the statute was extensively revised in 1971, and a
1978 decision by the same court stated that the legislative history of
the amended statute showed Congress accepted the fact that every
Procurement List addition will deprive private industry of a
substantial amount of potential business.
On the question of nonprofit agency capability, commenters noted
that the nonprofit agency is not in the laundry business and does not
have a laundry facility. The role of base contracting personnel in
inducing the nonprofit agency to perform this service was questioned.
Commenters also pointed out that very stringent health and safety
requirements apply to hospital laundry services, particularly in
connection with blood-borne pathogens, including a requirement to have
a backup laundry facility. They questioned the ability of any small
entity to perform the service and meet these requirements, given the
performance history of small businesses on this service, and
particularly the
[[Page 63821]]
ability of an entity that will use mentally impaired persons to perform
the service.
The nonprofit agency is aware of the health and safety requirements
the commenters noted and is taking steps to assure compliance with
them. Among these steps, the nonprofit agency has retained a retired
nurse who worked at the hospital's infectious control unit to develop
its quality assurance plan and related procedures and to provide expert
advice. The nonprofit agency has acquired and installed the necessary
laundry equipment. The nonprofit agency performed laundry service for a
local hospital as part of its training and has made arrangements for
that hospital to provide backup laundry services as needed.
The Committee's program is currently performing 25 other laundry
projects successfully, including several hospital laundries, and the
central nonprofit agency responsible for developing those projects has
reviewed this nonprofit agency's plans and laundry facility and
concluded that it will be able to perform this project successfully. In
each of the hospital laundries, people with mental disabilities are
successfully performing tasks which require contact with infectious
materials, as they will do in performing this service. The contracting
activity has visited and approved the nonprofit agency's laundry
facility. Given this record, and the central nonprofit agency's
expertise in assessing nonprofit agency capability to perform hospital
laundry services and assisting such agencies in performing these
services, the Committee believes the nonprofit agency is capable of
performing this service successfully.
The Committee does not consider the involvement of base contracting
personnel in the development of this addition to the Procurement List
to be improper. Government personnel are encouraged by a Committee
regulation, 41 CFR 51-5.1, to assist the Committee and its central
nonprofit agencies in identifying suitable services to be added to the
Procurement List, and are required by the same regulation to provide
the Committee and the central nonprofit agencies with information
needed to determine if a service should be added.
Commenters also indicated that the nonprofit agency would provide
the service at a higher price than the contractor. The Committee's
statute requires services added to the Procurement List to be sold to
the Government at a fair market price, not necessarily the lowest
possible price. The Committee's procedures require prices in the dollar
range represented by the hospital laundry service to be set by
negotiation between the nonprofit agency and the contracting activity.
The price which has been set for this service has followed this fair
market pricing procedure and has been recognized by the Committee as a
fair market price.
After consideration of the material presented to it concerning
capability of qualified nonprofit agencies to provide the service and
impact of the addition on the current or most recent contractors, the
Committee has determined that the service listed below are suitable for
procurement by the Federal Government under 41 U.S.C. 46-48c and 41 CFR
51-2.4.
I certify that the following action will not have a significant
impact on a substantial number of small entities. The major factors
considered for this certification were:
1. The action will not result in any additional reporting,
recordkeeping or other compliance requirements for small entities other
than the small organizations that will furnish the service to the
Government.
2. The action will not have a severe economic impact on current
contractors for the service.
3. The action will result in authorizing small entities to furnish
the service to the Government.
4. There are no known regulatory alternatives which would
accomplish the objectives of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act (41 U.S.C. 46-
48c) in connection with the service proposed for addition to the
Procurement List.
Accordingly, the following service is hereby added to the
Procurement List:
Laundry Service, Hospital, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana
This action does not affect current contracts awarded prior to the
effective date of this addition or options that may be exercised under
those contracts.
Beverly L. Milkman,
Executive Director.
[FR Doc. 96-30632 Filed 11-29-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6353-01-P
