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Mandatory Disclosure for Government Contractors

Briefing Papers

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) mandatory disclosure rule (MDR), published by the FAR Council on November 12, 2008, requires Government contractors to disclose to the Government certain potential violations of criminal and civil law as well as instances of significant overpayment. The MDR included a new FAR clause addressing business ethics and conduct, applicable to certain covered contracts and requiring disclosure of potential wrongful conduct. The rule also included a new definition of “present responsibility,” which provides that federal contractors and subcontractors, regardless of whether they are subject to the new FAR clause, can be suspended or debarred for failure to timely disclose potential wrongful conduct or significant overpayments. More than nine years have passed now since the MDR took effect on December 12, 2008, yet many questions and issues still remain regarding the rule’s application.

This Briefing Paper begins with an overview of a contractor’s obligations under the MDR and then discusses the operation of the MDR program to date, continuing issues under the MDR for the Government contracts community, and new frontiers in federal disclosure requirements.

To read the full paper, please click here.

“Mandatory Disclosure for Government Contractors,” by Stuart B. Nibley and David M. Nadler* was published in the May 2018 edition of the Briefing Papers, Second Series (Issue 18-6), a Thomson Reuters publication. Reprinted with permission.

*Stuart B. Nibley is a partner in and the chair of the Government Contracts Group of K&L Gates LLP in Washington, D.C. David M. Nadler is a partner in and chair of the Government Contracts practice group of Blank Rome LLP in Washington, D.C. Both are members of the advisory board of THE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR published by Thomson Reuters. This paper is based on the authors’ presentation on February 23, 2018, at Thomson Reuters’s Government Contracts Year-In-Review Conference Covering 2017 in Washington, D.C.