Procurement List; Additions and Deletion

COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR SEVERELY DISABLED

Procurement List; Additions and Deletion

AGENCY: Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely

Disabled.

ACTION: Additions to and deletion from the Procurement List.

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SUMMARY: This action adds to the Procurement List commodities and

services to be furnished by nonprofit agencies employing persons who

are blind or have other severe disabilities, and deletes from the

Procurement List a service previously furnished by such agencies.

EFFECTIVE DATE: November 3, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely

Disabled, Crystal Square 3, Suite 403, 1735 Jefferson Davis Highway,

Arlington, Virginia 22202-3461.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Milkman, (703) 603-7740.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On February 14, June 27, July 25, August 1

and 15, 1997, the Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or

Severely Disabled published notices (62 FR 6946, 34686, 40049, 41339

and 43698) of proposed additions to and deletion from the Procurement

List:

Additions

The Following Comments Pertain to Laundry/Dry Cleaning Service,

Quantico, VA

Comments were received from the current contractor in response to a

Committee request for sales data. The contractor indicated that

addition of this service to the Procurement List would have a severe

impact on the subsidiary which is performing the service but would not

result in the economic collapse of the parent company. The contractor

also claimed that the addition would have a severe impact on two

subcontractors involved in performing the service, and would require

the contractor to terminate several employees.

The Committee looks at impact on the entire corporate structure of

a contractor when it makes its assessment of the impact a Procurement

List addition will have, not just the subsidiary that performs the

service. In this case, that impact is far below the level which the

Committee considers to be severe adverse impact.

The contractor indicated that its activities in the contract are

limited to pickup and delivery of laundry and dry cleaning and

performing adminstrative functions, while the actual laundering and dry

cleaning operations are provided, respectively, by two subcontractors.

The contractor provided data for the two subcontractors to indicate

that impact of the addition on them would be severe.

The nonprofit agency will be performing all the functions of the

current contractor and its laundry subcontractor. It will be

subcontracting the dry cleaning to the current dry cleaning

subcontractor initially, and that contractor will continue to have the

opportunity to bid on subcontracts for dry cleaning, so the addition

will not have a severe adverse impact on that subcontractor. The

percentage of sales which the current laundry subcontractor will lose

because of the Procurement List addition does not rise to the level

which the Committee normally considers to be severe adverse impact.

The unemployment rate for people with severe disabilities exceeds

65 percent, which is far above the rate for most other people in this

country. Consequently, the Committee believes that any loss of

employment by the current contractor's employees is outweighed by the

jobs which will be created for people with severe disabilities. In

addition, given the scope of the project, the Committee does not

believe that the number of employees mentioned by the current

contractor will be displaced as a direct result of the Committee's

action.

After consideration of the material presented to it concerning

capability of qualified nonprofit agencies to provide the commodities

and services and impact of the additions on the current or most recent

contractors, the Committee has determined that the commodities and

services listed below are suitable for procurement by the Federal

Government under 41 U.S.C. 46-48c and 41 CFR 51-2.4.

I certify that the following action will not have a significant

impact on a

[[Page 51828]]

substantial number of small entities. The major factors considered for

this certification were:

1. The action will not result in any additional reporting,

recordkeeping or other compliance requirements for small entities other

than the small organizations that will furnish the commodities and

services to the Government.

2. The action will not have a severe economic impact on current

contractors for the commodities and services.

3. The action will result in authorizing small entities to furnish

the commodities and services to the Government.

4. There are no known regulatory alternatives which would

accomplish the objectives of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act (41 U.S.C. 46-

48c) in connection with the commodities and services proposed for

addition to the Procurement List.

Accordingly, the following commodities and services are hereby

added to the Procurement List:

Commodities

Office and Miscellaneous Supplies

(Requirements for Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington)

Services

Grounds Maintenance, Base Hospital, Buildings 5520, 5521 & 5522,

Edwards Air Force Base, California

Janitorial/Custodial

VA Outpatient Clinic, Las Vegas, Nevada

Janitorial/Custodial

Federal Building, 209 Broadway, New York, New York

Laundry/Dry Cleaning

U.S. Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia

This action does not affect current contracts awarded prior to the

effective date of this addition or options that may be exercised under

those contracts.

Deletion

I certify that the following action will not have a significant

impact on a substantial number of small entities. The major factors

considered for this certification were:

1. The action will not result in any additional reporting,

recordkeeping or other compliance requirements for small entities.

2. The action will not have a severe economic impact on future

contractors for the service.

3. The action will result in authorizing small entities to furnish

the service to the Government.

4. There are no known regulatory alternatives which would

accomplish the objectives of the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act (41 U.S.C. 46-

48c) in connection with the service deleted from the Procurement List.

The following service is hereby deleted from the Procurement List:

Document Destruction, Internal Revenue Service, Cincinnati Service

Center, 200 West Fourth Street, Covington, Kentucky.

Beverly L. Milkman,

Executive Director.

[FR Doc. 97-26328 Filed 10-2-97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6353-01-P