The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has issued procedures for scheduling and conducting compliance evaluations of contractors receiving funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

According to OFCCP, it is required to conduct a full compliance evaluation, including a full desk audit and onsite review, of every supply and service (non-construction) Recovery Act-funded contractor establishment scheduled, even in the absence of systemic discrimination indicators. Where the OFCCP has reasonable cause to believe that a contractor has violated the equal opportunity clause, it may issue a notice requiring the contractor to show cause, within 30 days, why OFCCP should not institute monitoring, enforcement proceedings, or other appropriate action.

The OFCCP will use an administratively neutral selection system to identify Recovery Act-funded federal and federally-assisted construction contractors for evaluation. As the OFCCP identifies ARRA funded construction projects, the projects will be placed on a list developed by the OFCCP’s national office. Projects will be selected for review by the national office and provided in “batches” to the OFCCP offices where the projects are located. The contractors working on the projects selected for review will be selected for evaluation based on specific neutral criteria.

The OFCCP says the major focus of a construction compliance review will be the contractor’s trade workforce in the geographical area(s) where the contract work is being performed, and its good faith efforts to achieve equal employment opportunity. This review will consider the contractor’s total onsite construction workforce in the area, including those employees working on other construction projects, whether or not those other projects are federally funded or federally assisted. See ARRA Directive Transmittal and OFCCP’s ARRA FAQ for more information.