The Professional Services Council (PSC) on September 30 submitted comments to the U.S. Agency for International Development raising questions about the scope and operation of USAID’s proposed rule, “Partner Vetting in USAID Assistance,” that was published in the Federal Register on August 29, 2013.
This proposed rule would establish a requirement for the government screening of key individuals, called the “partner vetting system” (PVS), to ensure that USAID funds and other resources do not inadvertently benefit individuals or entities that are terrorists, supporters of terrorists, or affiliated with terrorists. The rule would apply that screening to contracts, grants and other forms of assistance based on a risk-based assessment by USAID and a specific determination by the USAID Assistance Officer to apply them to a specific award winner.
While PSC respects the goals of the program, “we remain concerned about the indefinite scope and procedures for partner vetting for both acquisition and assistance,” said Alan Chvotkin, PSC’s executive vice president and counsel. “Even with this proposed rule there is still confusion regarding the vetting of organizations and individuals that must be resolved.”
USAID started down this path over six years ago with the establishment of a new system of records for partner vetting under the federal Privacy Act, and PSC raised concerns when this issue first surfaced. In 2009, USAID published a proposed rule to amend the USAID acquisition regulation to apply PVS to its acquisitions. In extensive comments submitted in 2009, PSC raised concerns with the USAID proposed rule because of our concern with the policies and ambiguities regarding the scope of the PVS, whether the PVS process would impose a “secret determination of eligibility,” for contractors and whether the burdens of any PVS system would fall disproportionally on smaller or newer USAID competitors.
On February 14, 2012, USAID published in the Federal Register a final rule amending the USAID acquisition regulation to apply the PVS pilot program to USAID acquisitions. That final rule became effective March 15, 2012. However, USAID has not yet fully applied the PVS program to either acquisitions or assistance awards.
