OMB - Supporting Statement - Suppliers Certificate 282 - 0412-0012

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Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission

Form AID 282

Supplier's Certificate and Agreement with the

U.S. Agency for International Development/

Invoice-and-Contract Abstract,

OMB Control No. 0412-0012

A. Justification

1. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) provides U.S. dollar financing of goods and related services under a Commodity Import Program (CIP) which are contracted for in countries receiving USAID assistance, and it receives local currency from recipients of the goods and services. (The only currently active CIP is in Egypt.) Since USAID is not a party to these purchase contracts, it needs some means of collecting information directly from the suppliers of such commodities and related services to enable it to take appropriate action in the event that they do not comply with applicable USAID regulations. The information collection, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements are necessary to assure that USAID funds are expended in accordance with statutory requirements and USAID policies. Section 621 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, allows the promulgation of regulations to carry out the functions of the Agency. USAID’s Regulation 1 (22 CFR 201), Section 201:52, specifies the required payment documents, of which Form AID 282 is one.

2. The Invoice-and-Contract Abstract identifies the transaction being financed and provides information on the supplier, carrier, and insurer. The information is used by the field mission controller and commodity staff to identify transactions in order to track expenditures, assure that statutory and regulatory requirements are met, and to provide a basis for requesting appropriate refunds if requirements have not been met.

The information on the type of business that is being collected on the supplier is used by USAID's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization/Minority Resource Center to determine the extent of small business, small disadvantaged business, women-owned small business, veteran-owned small business and service-disabled veteran owned small business participation, in order 1. to strive toward agency goals for awards to these types of businesses which are annually established by the U.S. Small Business Administration and 2. to include the information in statutorily mandated reports.

This collection of information on the type of business is only for general statistical purposes: USAID's CIPs, which this information collection supports, have no provision for granting preferences or benefits based upon the supplier's type of business, as does the FAR. Accordingly, the contracting process does not follow the FAR procedures that require assignment of a NAIC Code to the procurement and SBA certification for claiming small disadvantaged business status, and therefore strict adherence to the FAR definitions of the business types is not appropriate. Revised versions of the definitions for small business, small disadvantaged business, women-owned small business, veteran-owned small business, and service-disabled veteran owned small business have been employed in the collection, ones appropriate to the degree of precision considered necessary for merely monitoring the diversity of business types in our program implementation processes. We are also emphasizing factors assumed in domestic usage, but perhaps misleading in an international context, i.e. we are concerned with U.S. business and U.S. military veteran participation.

In summary, without the information collection proposed, the Agency would have difficulty pursuing its rights for refunds from suppliers, and it would be unable to monitor small business, small disadvantaged business, women-owned small business, veteran-owned small business, and service-disabled veteran-owned small business participation in its financing of CIPs.

3. We post this form on USAID's public web site, where respondents may download it. It and the other vouchering documents required for payment may be e-mailed or faxed to USAID under USAID’s Automated Directives System, Chapter 630, Payables Management, at http://www.usaid.gov/policy/ads/600/630.pdf.

4. We are not aware of any duplication in our requirements. The information requested is specific to the transactions being financed. Similar or previous information would be of no use.

5. The minimum amount of information necessary is requested from suppliers.

6. Suppliers of goods under CIPs are required to abide by USAID Regulation 1. However, since USAID is not a party to the contracts under CIPs, enforcement is based upon the certifications and information provided directly to USAID by the suppliers on Form AID 282, permitting USAID to take appropriate action against them in the event that they do not comply with the applicable regulations.

7. Not applicable.

8. Consultations with contractors take place informally as questions occur. The field mission commodity staff has regular contact with suppliers concerning the requirements, and if there is a problem with information requirements, efforts are made to correct the situation. We are not aware of any problems that have not been resolved. Nor are we aware of any supplier comments on the cost and hour burden, availability of data, clarity of instructions, reporting format, or data elements; and we have no reason to believe that these items are of significant concern to the respondents.

9. Not applicable.

10. The instructions for the form contain the Paperwork Reduction Act Notice that information furnished will be disclosed outside USAID only as provided by law.

11. Not applicable.

12. The estimated number of respondents per year is 950, and the number of responses is 2400 per year, based on the field-mission commodity staff’s review of the prior five-year period. The number of responses per transaction varies depending on the number of shipments and the terms of the shipments, i.e., FOB, FAS, C&F, CFR, CPT, C&I. The average time required is estimated at .500 hours per response. Based upon a later computation of five years of usage, the commodity staff revised the estimate of the number of respondents after it was submitted for publication, but the number of responses and annual burden hours remain as published September 21, 2006.

The estimated annual hour burden is broken out as follows:

2400 responses/yr x .500 hr/resp = 1200 hrs

We estimated the cost to respondents for this information collection to be approximately $52,000 per year. The estimated annual cost incurred for the burden for reporting and recordkeeping is broken out as follows:

Preparation by clerical personnel.

$14.00/hr x .333 hr/form x 2400 forms $11,200

Management review and execution of cert.

$31.00/hr x .167 hr/form x 2400 forms $12,400

$23,600

Fringe benefits and overhead for a medium-

size commercial organization at 120%. $28,320

Est. annual respondent cost $51,920

13. No additional mailing costs are involved because the form is submitted with the regular commercial documents that are required for payment. There are no capital or start-up costs or purchase of services component associated with the information collection; nor are there operation and maintenance costs to the respondents other than other than the cost of the burden hours, which are listed in Item 12.

14. We estimate the cost to the Federal Government at approximately $72,000 per year. This cost is based on the submission of an estimated 2,400 forms per year on the following breakdown:

Coding and reporting information.

FS-8, Step 2, or Clerical Foreign Service National

at $15.80/hr x .25 hr x 2,400 forms $9,480

Review of reports for completeness and compliance.

FS-4, Step 6, at $30.71/hr x .25 hr x 2,400 forms $18,426

$27,906

Fringe benefits at 32%. $ 8,930

$36,836

Overhead at 90%. $33,152

$69,988 Printing and mailing. $ 2,000

Est. annual Govt. cost. $71,988

We are decreasing the estimate for mailing and printing on the basis of the online availability of the form and provision for submission by e-mail, of which we anticipate the majority of respondents to avail themselves.

15. The total record collection and recordkeeping burden remains the same.

16. Not applicable.

17. Not applicable.

18. No exceptions are taken to Item 19 of Form OMB 83-I.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods.

The collection does not employ statistical methods.