52.203-16 — Preventing Personal Conflicts of Interest.

FAR 52.203-16 — Preventing Personal Conflicts of Interest.. This clause is part of the Federal Acquisition Regulation and may be included in government contracts as a solicitation provision or contract clause.

52.203-16 Preventing Personal Conflicts of Interest. As prescribed in 3.1106, insert the following clause: Preventing Personal Conflicts of Interest (JUN 2020) (a) Definitions. As used in this clause— Acquisition function closely associated with inherently governmental functions means supporting or providing advice or recommendations with regard to the following activities of a Federal agency: (1) Planning acquisitions. (2) Determining what supplies or services are to be acquired by the Government, including developing statements of work. (3) Developing or approving any contractual documents, to include documents defining requirements, incentive plans, and evaluation criteria. (4) Evaluating contract proposals. (5) Awarding Government contracts. (6) Administering contracts (including ordering changes or giving technical direction in contract performance or contract quantities, evaluating contractor performance, and accepting or rejecting contractor products or services). (7) Terminating contracts. (8) Determining whether contract costs are reasonable, allocable, and allowable. Covered employee means an individual who performs an acquisition function closely associated with inherently governmental functions and is— (1) An employee of the contractor; or (2) A subcontractor that is a self-employed individual treated as a covered employee of the contractor because there is no employer to whom such an individual could submit the required disclosures. Non-public information means any Government or third-party information that— (1) Is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) or otherwise protected from disclosure by statute, Executive order, or regulation; or (2) Has not been disseminated to the general public and the Government has not yet determined whether the information can or will be made available to the public. Personal conflict of interest means a situation in which a covered employee has a financial interest, personal activity, o

• Covered employee means an individual who performs an acquisition function closely associated with inherently governmental functions and is— (1) An employee of the contractor; or (2) A subcontractor that is a self-employed individual treated as a covered employee of the contractor because there is no employer to whom such an individual could submit the required disclosures.
• The Contractor shall— (1) Have procedures in place to screen covered employees for potential personal conflicts of interest, by— (i) Obtaining and maintaining from each covered employee, when the employee is initially assigned to the task under the contract, a disclosure of interests that might be affected by the task to which the employee has been assigned, as follows: (A) Financial interests of the covered employee, of close family members, or of other members of the covered employee's household.
• This report shall include a description of the violation and the proposed actions to be taken by the Contractor in response to the violation.
• (1) In exceptional circumstances, if the Contractor cannot satisfactorily prevent a personal conflict of interest as required by paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this clause, the Contractor may submit a request through the Contracting Officer to the Head of the Contracting Activity for— (i) Agreement to a plan to mitigate the personal conflict of interest; or (ii) A waiver of the requirement.
• (2) The Contractor shall include in the request any proposed mitigation of the personal conflict of interest.
• (3) The Contractor shall— (i) Comply, and require compliance by the covered employee, with any conditions imposed by the Government as necessary to mitigate the personal conflict of interest; or (ii) Remove the Contractor employee or subcontractor employee from performance of the contract or terminate the applicable subcontract.
• The Contractor shall include the substance of this clause, including this paragraph (d), in subcontracts— (1) That exceed the simplified acquisition threshold, as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation 2.101 on the date of subcontract award; and (2) In which subcontractor employees will perform acquisition functions closely associated with inherently governmental functions ( i.e., instead of performance only by a self-employed individual).