As federal awardee database opens, debate about openness continues
Watchdog groups and business groups are wrestling over what contractor information should be available to the public as part of the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System.
The Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System is open -- but mostly empty.
FAPIIS, where contracting officers will have a wide-ranging repository of information on companies, opened April 15. Only data uploaded after April 15 will appear on the site, which leaves the database pretty empty.
Meanwhile, Kathleen Turco, the General Services Administration’s associate administrator of the Office of Governmentwide Policy, told the Federal Times that new database “is akin to setting up the Better Business Bureau of federal contracting.”
The debate around FAPIIS continues, however. How open should it be for the public, and how closed should it be to protect businesses’ reputations?