I. Background

DoD is issuing a final rule to amend the DFARS to implement section 207 of the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 (WSARA) (Pub. L. 111-23). Section 207 requires DoD to revise the DFARS to provide uniform guidance and tighten existing requirements relating to organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs) of contractors in major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs). The law sets out situations that must be addressed and allows DoD to establish such limited exceptions as are necessary to ensure that DoD has continued access to advice on systems architecture and systems engineering matters from highly qualified contractors, while also ensuring that such advice comes from sources that are objective and unbiased.

In developing regulatory language, section 207 directed DoD to consider the recommendation presented by the Panel on Contracting Integrity and further directed DoD to consider any findings and recommendations of the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) and the Director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) pursuant to section 841(b) of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 (Pub. L. 110-417). Section 841(b) of the NDAA for FY 2009 required review by OFPP, in consultation with OGE, of FAR coverage of OCIs. Neither OFPP nor OGE has issued recommendations to date pursuant to section 841(b), but both have worked with the FAR Acquisition Law Team, which includes representatives from DoD and the civilian agencies, to draft a proposed rule on OCIs under FAR Case 2007-018. As part of this process, OFPP, OGE, and the FAR Acquisition Law Team reviewed comments received in response to an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, published in the Federal Register at 73 FR 15962 on March 26, 2008, and are also considering pertinent comments that were submitted in response to this DFARS Case 2009-D015 in formulation of the proposed FAR rule.

A public meeting was held on December 8, 2009 (see 74 FR 57666) to provide opportunity for dialogue on the possible impact on DoD contracting of the section 207 requirements relating to OCIs.

DoD published a proposed rule in the Federal Register on April 22, 2010 (75 FR 20954). The comment period was initially scheduled to close on June 21, 2010. On June 15, 2010, the comment period was extended to July 21, 2010 (75 FR 33752).