In 2016 the Government Accountability Office found that “close to 85 percent of contractor establishments did not submit a written AAP within 30 days of receiving a scheduling letter.” The OFCCP is concerned about what they call “free riders,” or contractors that do not complete an annual Affirmative Action Program (AAP) due to the relatively low likelihood of being audited.
In order to close this gap the OFCCP is working on setting up a program to annually verify that contractors have completed their AAP. Some of the plans are discussed in the OFCCP’s new Directive 2018-07-Affirmative Action Program Verification Initiative. The OFCCP does not specify exactly how contractors would certify that their AAP is completed. Contractors that certify will have a lower chance of being audited, but the OFCCP will still audit those contractors to ensure their AAPs are, in fact, completed. If contractors do not complete the certification process, it will increase the likelihood of being selected for a review. The OFCCP believes this will help better identify contractors that are not in compliance. At the end of the directive, it says the OFCCP will have a public outreach and education campaign about this new initiative. Maly will let our clients know as soon as the certification program is up and running.
The new directives can be found here on the OFCCP’s website.
