System for Award Management

The Central Contractor Registration (CCR) was the primary supplier database for the U.S. Federal government until July 30, 2012. The CCR collected data from suppliers, validated and stored this data, and disseminated it to various government acquisition agencies. On July 30, 2012, the CCR transitioned to the System for Award Management (SAM)[1] e-procurement system.

History

In October 1993, President Bill Clinton issued a memorandum that required the Government to reform its acquisition processes. Subsequently, the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 was passed, requiring the establishment of a "single face to industry". To accomplish this, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) designated a centralized, electronic registration process, known as CCR, as the single point of entry for vendors that want to do business with the DoD. To this end, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), Subpart 204.7300, required contractors to register in the CCR to conduct business with the DoD.

A new Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) policy, published October 1, 2003 (Circular 2003-016, FAR case 2002-018), requires that all federal contractors register in the CCR database prior to the awarding of any contract or purchase agreement.

The CCR and Business Partner Network (BPN) maintained 99.98% uptime. Most user issues stem from DoD mandated security controls or the user's network and/or ISP's not following RFC standards for Internet protocols.

July 24, 2012 began Phase I of a consolidation of federal government systems used for contracting to SAM (System for Acquisition Management). On that date, users were no longer permitted to enter new information into the CCR or the other systems being migrated in Phase I to allow sufficient time for their data to be migrated to SAM. After July 30, 2012, users who visited the CCR, ORCA, or EPLS websites are automatically redirected to SAM.gov.[2]

Transition to SAM

On July 30, 2012, the CCR transitioned to the System for Award Management (SAM), which combined legacy users' records in the CCR and eight other separate websites and databases that aided in the management of Federal procurement from start to finish.[2] This consolidation SAM was designed to "reduce the burden on those seeking to do business with the government."[1] In addition to eliminating redundancies and streamlining processes, Sam provides a single help desk to resolve issues with any of the databases.[2]

Systems included in SAM

The systems combined into SAM are listed below, grouped by functional area. Their migration to SAM is being conducted in phases:[2] Phase I of SAM includes the functionality from the entity management systems - Central Contractor Registry (CCR), Federal Agency Registration (Fedreg), Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) - and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS).[3]

Assistance Program Catalog
Award Management
Entity Management
Performance Information
Wage Data

SAM users and registrants

Users of SAM include contracting officials, grant-makers, contractors, and the public.[2] Those required to register in SAM include:

There is no charge for registration. Renewal must be done annually. A common scam is to convince businesses to pay to use the scammer's services to register or renew or 'complete their registration'. [6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "CCR Moving to SAM". U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, Barbara A. Duncombe, and Casie E. Hollis (July 18, 2012). "Goodbye ORCA. Goodbye CCR. Hello SAM.". Lexology. Association of Corporate Counsel.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "About SAM: What is SAM?". SAM (System for Acquisition Management). Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  4. ↑ "CIRAS - Government Contracting CCR and ORCA". Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  5. ↑ "Excluded Parties List System". EPA: Grants and Debarment. December 11, 2012.
  6. ↑ "The SAM registration scam case". projectauditors.com. Retrieved July 6, 2017.

Further reading

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