Farewell Procurement Integrity Act

Farewell “Procurement Integrity Act,” Hello “Restrictions on Obtaining and Disclosing Certain Information”
By Edward J. Kinberg, Attorney
October 26, 2012

While Congress and the Executive Branch have been deadlocked on the budget, they have had the time to change the name of many of the well known laws that apply to federal contractors. On September 18, 2012, DoD, GSA and NASA published a 31 page proposed rule that will change commonly used names or terms within many of the statutes, regulations and policies referred to every day by both contractors and agencies.   

To me, the strangest change of all is the one in the title of this article.  From my perspective, the change indicates the agencies are shifting their focus from integrity in procurement to compliance with the law.  I believe this is a serious shift as it removes the focus on individual responsibility and shifts it to simple compliance with the law. 

In other words, personal integrity is secondary to compliance with the rules of the game.  An individual that acts with integrity is most likely an individual that follows the rules. By taking integrity out of the picture, we downplay the role of personal responsibility and increase the likelihood that the rules will not be followed.

Other name changes continue this policy of shifting focus from personal responsibility to simple compliance with law. Other name changes in the act include:

If you would like to read the full act, click here.  Comments on the proposed rule are due November 18, 2012. If you would like to submit a comment, click here.