04-20480. Information Collection; Prohibition on Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor

AGENCIES:

Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

ACTION:

Notice of request for comments regarding an extension to an existing OMB clearance.

SUMMARY:

Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Secretariat will be submitting to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve an extension of a currently approved information collection requirement regarding prohibition on acquisition of products produced by forced or indentured child labor. The clearance currently expires on October 31, 2004.

DATES:

Submit comments on or before: November 9, 2004.

ADDRESSES:

Submit comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the Regulatory Secretariat (VR), General Services Administration, Room 4035, 1800 F Street, NW., Washington, DC 20405. Please cite OMB Control No. 9000-0155, Prohibition on Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor, in all correspondence.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

Craig R. Goral, Contract Policy Division, GSA [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Purpose

This information collection complies with Executive Order 13126, Prohibition on Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor, signed by the President on June 12, 1999. Executive Order 13126 requires that this prohibition be enforced within the federal acquisition system by means of: (1) A provision that requires the contractor to certify to the contracting officer that the contractor or, in the case of an incorporated contractor, a responsible official of the contractor has made a good faith effort to determine whether forced or indentured child labor was used to mine, produce, or manufacture any product furnished under the contract and that, on the basis of those efforts, the contractor is unaware of any such use of child labor; and (2) A provision that obligates the contractor to cooperate fully in providing reasonable access to the contractor's records, documents, persons, or premises if reasonably requested by authorized officials of the contracting agency, the Department of the Treasury, or the Department of Justice, for the purpose of determining whether forced or indentured child labor was used to mine, produce, or manufacture any product furnished under the contract.

The information collection requirements of the Executive Order are evidenced via the certification requirements delineated at FAR 22.1503, 52.212-3, 52.222-18, and 52.222-19.

To eliminate some of the administrative burden on offerors who must submit the same information to various contracting offices, the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council (Councils) decided to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to require offerors to submit representations and certifications electronically via the Business Partner Network (BPN), unless certain exceptions apply. Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) is the specific application on the BPN to replace the paper based Representations and Certifications (Reps and Certs) process. The change to the FAR is being accomplished by FAR Case 2002-024. The clearance associated with this case referenced this OMB Control No. 9000-0155 and reduced the hours of burden by 35%—attributable to mandated use of ORCA. This reduction is already reflected in the figures below.

B. Annual Reporting Burden

Respondents: 500.

Responses Per Respondent: 1.

Hours Per Response: 0.325.

Total Burden Hours: 162.

Obtaining Copies of Proposals: Requesters may obtain a copy of the information collection documents from the General Services Administration, Regulatory Secretariat (VR), 1800 F Street, NW, Room 4035, Washington, DC 20405, telephone [phone]. Please cite OMB Control No. 9000-0155, Prohibition on Acquisition of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labor, in all correspondence.

Dated: September 2, 2004

Ralph J. De Stefano

Acting Director, Contract Policy Division.