OFCCP Acting Director Craig Leen announced the release of a fact sheet on ‘What Federal Contractors Can Expect’ at the opening ceremony of the National ILG conference in Anaheim, CA last week.
The document outlines the key themes from Leen’s address to the contractor community:
- Compliance Assistance
- Timeliness
- Opportunities for feedback and collaboration
- Professional Conduct
- A Neutral Audit Selection Process
- Opportunities to discuss compliance evaluation concerns without retaliation
- Timely and Efficient Compliance Evaluations
Mr. Leen discussed that the primary mission of OFCCP is to enhance EEO and enforce anti-discrimination, but that OFCCP was also there to assist contractors with compliance. He believes that a low percentage of contractors are ‘bad actors’ and discussed additional key factors for contractors to be aware of for the remainder of this administration:
- He believes in full transparency of OFCCP, and invited conference attendees and contractors to personally contact him if any OFCCP official was not behaving in a professional manner;
- He alluded to the creation of an ombudsman position where anonymous complaints could be processed;
- Leen alluded to a contractor verification initiative, which was fully announced at the closing session of the conference on August 3, 2018;
- Leen discussed the desire for OFCCP to complete desk audits within a 45 day timeframe;
- Contractors can look forward to some focused reviews on Section 503 (an estimate of 10% of audits to be focused reviews);Leen also mentioned that there may be focused reviews on VEVRAA and EO 11246;
- Finally, Leen mentioned that OFCCP is working on a technical assistance manual for higher education.
The overall tone of the conference and session was transparency and collaboration, and Mr. Leen generally left most of the contractor community feeling positive about the future direction of the agency.
By Joanna Colosimo, M.A., Director of EEO Compliance at DCI Consulting Group
