Understanding the Proposed Updates to Organizational Conflict of Interest Rules

On January 15, the Department of Defense, GSA, and NASA published proposed rules that would implement the Preventing Organizational Conflicts of Interest in Federal Acquisition Act. The Act was enacted on December 27, 2022. It directs the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council to:

• update regulatory definitions related to specific types of organizational conflicts of interest (OCIs), including unequal access to information, impaired objectivity, and biased ground rules;
• provide updated guidance and illustrative examples related to relationships of contractors with public, private, domestic, and foreign entities that may result in OCIs; and
• provide illustrative examples of situations related to the potential for OCIs.

The proposed changes implement the Act by moving OCI regulations to a new subpart, FAR part 3, and substantially revising and clarifying current OCI regulations.

The focus of the proposed rule is to update and strengthen policies to prevent OCIs in federal contracting.

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