Contractor Portal Considerations

Written by Rosemary Cox, M.S. | Feb 3, 2022 8:36:58 PM

On February 1, 2022, registration for the Contractor Portal for the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) opened. The Contractor Portal will be used for covered supply and service federal contractors and subcontractors to certify that they have developed affirmative action programs for each of their establishments or functional units. 

As a reminder, the following are important dates regarding the Contractor Portal: 

February 1, 2022 – The Contractor Portal formally opens so that federal contractors and subcontractors can register their organizations.
March 31, 2022 – Organizations that have completed the registration process can begin to use the Contractor Portal to certify compliance. 
June 30, 2022 – Certification must be completed for all covered federal contractors and subcontractors.

We encourage you to think strategically through several considerations prior to registering. There is no rush to register. Organizations have until June 30, 2022 to register and certify on the portal. Certification does not begin until March 31, and registering before then will not give you earlier access to the certification process. Further, we have heard of some companies having technical issues, so it may be advantageous to wait.

As part of the registration process, organizations are allowed to pre-populate information on the organization as a whole and its establishments from data in the 2018 EEO-1 report. As you prepare to register, consider the following regarding the use of data from your 2018 EEO-1 filing:

Has your company undergone substantial changes since the 2018 EEO-1 reports were certified?
Has your company undergone mergers/acquisitions since the 2018 EEO-1 reports were certified?
Do all establishments on your company’s 2018 EEO-1 reports have federal contracts? Are there subsidiaries or related entities that should not be included in the Contractor Portal that were on your company’s 2018 EEO-1 report?
Are you registering on the Contractor Portal for multiple companies? Do they have separate EEO-1 reports?
Does your organization use Functional Affirmative Action Plans (FAAPs), which would not be reflected in the 2018 EEO-1 reports?
Is your organization a College or University that doesn’t file EEO-1 reports?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, it might be best to hold off on registering until there is more clarity provided by OFCCP. If your 2018 EEO-1 reports filed correctly and in a way that appropriately reflects your company and its establishments, you may be fine to register now.

For DCI clients, if you do register, please let us know how it goes and if you receive any errors. If you run into technical issues, OFCCP does have a technical support contact form.

DCI will be hosting a webinar on February 16th about the Contractor Portal (register here) and we hope that you will join us.

If you need assistance in registering or have other questions, please let us know.

Author: Rosemary Cox

Join DCI for a free webinar on February 16 discussing these Contractor Portal updates. Register today!

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