The short answer is the federal contractor community overwhelmingly failed to prove their compliance with affirmative action regulations enforced by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).

The Long Answer
Enforcement statistics from the OFCCP’s compliance evaluations, reported by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2016, strongly suggested that federal contractors and subcontractors were not annually preparing their AAPs as required by federal regulations. One of the key findings from the GAO report was that 85% of companies selected for compliance evaluations failed to submit their AAPs to the OFCCP within the required 30-day window from receipt of an audit scheduling letter.*

The Contractor Portal
The OFCCP’s response to recommendations made by the GAO report was simple: create a mechanism to verify and enforce compliance amongst the federal contractor community. The OFCCP’s solution came via the Affirmative Action Verification Interface (AAVI), now referred to as the OFCCP Contractor Portal.

Noncompliance
The OFCCP has made their position clear regarding failure to certify compliance in the Contractor Portal. Federal contractors that meet the jurisdictional thresholds to prepare written AAPs that do not complete their AAP certification may find themselves at the top of the OFCCP audit scheduling list, or worse, subject to administrative or judicial enforcement proceedings.

Learn More
Contractor Portal certification process: https://kairosservicesinc.com/2022/02/01/ofccp-contractor-portal-registration-has-started/

Contractor Portal FAQs: https://kairosservicesinc.com/the-ofccp-contractor-portal-and-aap-certification/

Contractor Portal registration announcement: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDOLOFCCP/bulletins/308a291

* 2016. U.S. Government Accountability Office. “Equal Employment Opportunity: Strengthening Oversight Could Improve Federal Contractor Nondiscrimination Compliance”. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-16-750