iApplicable federal contractors should immediately review the 2020 Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (CSAL), released by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), to see if they have been selected for a future audit.
The CSAL notifies 2,250 Supply and Service establishments and, for the first time, 200 Construction contractors of upcoming audits. Historically, establishments selected for an audit received the CSAL notice by mail, but as previously reported, the OFCCP began in 2019 to exclusively post the CSAL online. The OFCCP developed the 2020 CSAL by identifying active contracts from a publicly-available information system. Notably, canceled contracts and contracts valued at less than $50,000 were not selected. Additional categories of reviews have also been adopted this cycle, including Accommodation Focused Reviews and Promotion Focused Reviews.
The CSAL provides courtesy notice to selected Supply and Service establishments and Construction contractors that they will undergo one of the various audits. Specifically, the CSAL for Supply and Service establishments is comprised of 500 Promotion Focused Reviews, 500 Accommodation Focused Reviews, 500 Compliance Checks and 250 Section 503 Focused Reviews. According to the OFCCP’s CSAL FAQ, “[i]nformation about Accommodation Focused Reviews and Promotion Focused Reviews will be available before those reviews are scheduled.” All federal Construction contractors have been notified that they will undergo a Compliance Check. The remaining 500 reviews include establishment-based compliance reviews, such as Corporate Management Compliance Evaluations (CMCE), Functional Affirmative Action Program (FAAP) Reviews and university compliance reviews. Notably, for purposes of university reviews, if a university has multiple campuses in different cities, each campus is treated as a separate establishment of the university.
Federal contractors should not miss this window of opportunity to begin preparing for the audit, as the OFCCP publishes the CSAL a minimum of 45 days before it begins to issue the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)-approved Scheduling Letter, which commences the compliance evaluation process. Upon receipt of the Scheduling Letter, contractors then have only 30 days to submit their Affirmative Action Programs (AAPs) and contractor records to the OFCCP (although 30-day pandemic-related extensions have been recently granted). Contractors identified on the CSAL should start reviewing their compliance efforts to minimize the likelihood of OFCCP noncompliance findings.
