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Contractors' Disclosing CPARS


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Is it okay for a contractor to disclose a CPARS in any or all of the following circumstances:

1 A quote attributed to "government contracting officer" - not the actual CO or agency - of specific CPARS language in general advertising, website, etc

2 Quote, identified to the contract on which the CPARS was given, in a federal government proposal, with the quote marked as exempt from FOIA disclosure

3 Entire CPARS is provided to a prime contractor, who has signed a nondisclosure agreement, to submit on a prime government proposal (CPARS is marked as confidential according to the nondisclosure language)

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Are you a government or contractor person and can you elaborate on what your concern is? Also, it would be helpful if you could identify the various entities in your facts by use of such terms as Contractor A, Contractor B, Government, etc., and indicate who obtained what information from where or who disclosed what information to what entity? In general, my understanding is that other than for Government persons who have a need to know, CPARS information should be obtained through the FOIA process, and exempt information should not be disclosed by an agency. I am not clear about a contractor that obtains information about its own CPARS and then disclosed it to others. Is that the situation here? 

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I am not clear about the rules relating to contractor use and disclosure to third parties of any and all information it obtains by its direct access to its evaluations(s) in the system vs. evaluation information released by the Agency in a FOIA request regarding the same evaluation (s). I don't know enough whether they are the exact same or different information and the extent to which that makes a difference regarding its use and disclosure to third parties.

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Corrrect. Contractor wants to disclose favorable information, in the scenarios listed. I understand that COs provide this information with some understanding that it is confidential, but I am not sure what the recipient's requirement to keep the information confidential is, especially where the CPARS reviewer's or agency's identity might be disclosed.

There doesn't seem to be any problem with a proposal provided directly to the government, as presumably the proposal reviewers have access to the system to get that information themselves. In the other two situations, third parties outside the government are viewing the information - in scenario 3, the prime contractor can see not only the information, but the name of the reviewer/agency/contractor.

Neil, I am a contractor person

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I do not know of any prohibition against a contractor disclosing its own CPARS assessment to anyone. I cannot think why there would be such a prohibition. And I cannot think how FOIA is involved. Why would the government care about a contractor disclosing the assessment of its own performance?

Go to the CPARS website, get the phone number, and call for assistance.

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3 hours ago, contractor100 said:

I understand that COs provide this information with some understanding that it is confidential...

I do not have any such understanding.  I am mindful of FAR 42.1503(d)'s instruction to government employees that "...the completed evaluation shall not be released to other than Government personnel and the contractor whose performance is being evaluated..." -- but I am unaware of any restriction on the contractor's sharing of the information from its own report.

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contractor100, just too many missing facts for me about who obtained what from whom and what was done with it with whom and what your beef is with it. Some of the facts you gave that caused concern is that a CO apparently provided information to a contractor, who did not obtain it by itself and someone signed an non-disclosure agreement relating thereto. For all I know, you are a competitor seeking to disqualify another contractor from a bid. Suggest you seek help from an intellectual property attorney specializing in government contract law.

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1 hour ago, contractor100 said:

It's good to know that evaluating COs don't have any expectation that their evaluations are confidential.

contractor100, No one here purported to speak for other contracting officers and their expectations.  I spoke for myself.  Who knows that thoughts other contracting officers have in their minds? 

😉

 

 

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