PUBLIC LAW 100-679—NOV. 17, 1988
102 STAT. 4067
"(1) being a competing contractor or an officer, employee, representative, agent, or consultant of a competing contractor, knowingly and willfully solicits or obtsiins, directly or indirectly, from any officer or employee of such agency any proprietary or source selection information (as such terms are defined in subsection (n) and in regulations prescribed pursuant to subsection (m)), or "(2) being an officer or employee of such agency, knowingly and willfully discloses or promises to disclose, directly or indirectly, to any competing contractor or any officer, employee, representative, agent, or consultant of a competing contractor any proprietary or source selection information, shall be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or fined in accordance with title 18, United States Code, or both. "(j) TRAINING.—The head of each Federal agency shall establish a procurement ethics program for its procurement officials. The program shall, at a minimum— "(1) provide for the distribution of written explanations of the provisions of subsection (b) to such procurement officials; and "(2) require each such procurement official, as a condition of serving as a procurement official, to certify that he or she is familiar with the provisions of subsection (b), and will not engage in any conduct prohibited by such subsection, and will report immediately to the contracting officer any information concerning a violation or possible violation of subsection (a), (b), (c), or (e), or applicable implementing regulations, "(k) REMEDIES NOT EXCLUSIVE.—Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to limit the applicability of the requirements, sanctions, contract penalties, and remedies established under any other law, but no Eigency shall be relieved of the obligation to carry out the requirements of this section because such agency has also applied such other requirements, sanctions, contract penalties, or remedies. "(1) No AUTHORITY TO WITHHOLD INFORMATION.—Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the withholding of any information from the Congress, any committee or subcommittee thereof, a Federal agency, any board of contract appeals of a Federal agency, the Comptroller General, or an Inspector General of a Federal agency. "(m) IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS AND GuiDEUNES.—Governmentwide regulations and guidelines deemed appropriate to carry out this section shall be issued in the Federal Acquisition Regulation within 180 days after the date of enactment of this section, "(n) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section: "(1) The term 'during the conduct of any Federal agency procurement of property or services' means the period beginning with the development, preparation, and issuance of a procurement solicitation, and concluding with the award, modification, or extension of a contract, and includes the evaluation of bids or proposals, selection of sources, and conduct of negotiations. "(2) The term 'competing contractor', with respect to any procurement (including any procurement using procedures other than competitive procedures) of property or services, means any entity that is, or is reasonably likely to become, a competitor for or recipient of a contract or subcontract under such procurement, and includes any other person acting on behalf of such an entity.
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