The OFCCP has released a new “Corporate Scheduling Announcement List” (CSAL) listing the federal contractor employer locations and functions that have been selected, but not yet scheduled, for audit. As of this writing, the agency has not yet published the list in the FOIA Library where the agency traditionally publishes and maintains active audit lists, but it is up on the agency’s Scheduling List Resources page here.
The CSAL lists can be thought of as the OFCCP’s workflow. The agency typically generates one or two lists each fiscal year to work from. A new list does not mean they have “closed” older lists, though. The OFCCP will typically work their way through each entire list eventually. And that means your organization can appear in a list generated this year but not receive an audit Scheduling Letter until a year, two, or even ten years later!
What’s In the List?
The newest list contains 750 supply-and-service contractor establishments or functions (though the OFCCP’s announcement appears to indicate that the list only contains location-based AAPs). A total of 693 of the entries on the list are location-based establishments. The remaining 57 are functional AAPs.
Of the establishment-based AAPs on the latest list, 19 of them are designated as “Corporate Management Compliance Evaluations” (CMCEs), meaning they intend to audit what they believe to be the corporate headquarters. CMCE audits are like regular audits but with an added focus on upper management policies and procedures and potential “glass ceiling” issues.
Note that all audits on the new FY 2021 CSAL will be “full” audits, meaning the agency is not scheduling new focused reviews, as promised.
What’s a “University” Audit?
Interestingly, the OFCCP has designated six as “University” audits, perhaps signaling that the agency intends to start treating university audits differently. Most likely, the agency will begin pushing colleges and universities to create campus-wide plans, rather than AAPs for individual buildings, consistent with recent guidance. Regardless, university audits are unique due to the more complex and varied employment arrangements found at higher education institutions, so this designation could simply be a reflection of that.
This is Your “Heads Up”
The CSAL list has been released 45 days before the agency will send the first Scheduling Letter. This advance notice is to give contractors time to get their AAPs in order and, as the OFCCP is quick to remind us, is a courtesy that the agency is not required to extend. As a result, the agency is less likely to be sympathetic if you request an extension when they eventually schedule the audit.
But as noted above, being on the FY 2021 audit list does not necessarily mean you will be audited in FY 2021 (which runs from October 1, 2020 to September 31, 2021). Many will be, and some will start to receive their Scheduling Letters kicking off an audit about a month and a half from now. But it is not at all unusual for some AAPs to not be scheduled for audit until years after the list was published. As a result, many organizations will scramble to get their AAPs “audit ready” to no avail. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine when the OFCCP will get around to actually scheduling these audits.
Is There Anything I Should Do?
Are you wondering how the OFCCP creates these audit lists? The agency publishes the methodology used here. While the OFCCP is not legally limited in the number of contractor AAPs they can select for audit, the agency does typically limit this number for each new CSAL. In the past, contractors might find as many as 20 or 30 AAPs selected for review in one list. This time around, it appears that the OFCCP did not select more than 9 for any one parent company.
BCGi recommends downloading and reviewing the list for AAPs that should not be selected for audit. Reasons why the agency might not audit an AAP include that the AAP has been audited already in the past 24 months, the location is no longer operating, or the location has fewer than 50 employees. The OFCCP tries to remove such AAPs from the list before publication, but their access to current data and information to make these determinations is limited. If you think a listed AAP is not “ripe” for audit, you can send an email to ofccp-dpo-scheduling@dol.gov.
Technically, the only way to remove an AAP from the list is to schedule it for an audit, so if you contact the OFCCP requesting removal of one or more of your AAPs, you should request an “administrative closure.” If the OFCCP agrees, they will schedule the AAP for an audit, then close it administratively before sending a Scheduling Letter. If you receive the Scheduling Letter before you had a chance to contact the OFCCP to request administrative closure, it’s not too late, but you’ll want to direct your request to the OFCCP compliance officer assigned to the audit instead.