CENTRAL CONTRACTOR REGISTRATION Central Contractor Registration (CCR) allows Federal Government contractors to provide basic business information, capabilities, and financial information one time to the government. To make registration easier, on October 1, 1996, the Department of Defense (DoD) implemented the capability for contractors to register in the CCR through the World Wide Web. The CCR web site may be accessed at http://www.acq.osd.mil/ec. Registration can also be accomplished via dial up modem at 614-692-6788 (User ID: ccrpub; password: pub2ccri), or through any DoD Certified Value Added Network. Additionally, a paper form for registration may be obtained from the DoD Electronic Commerce Information Center at 1-800-334-3414. [Note: Companies that do not wish to conduct electronic commerce with the Federal Government at this time can reduce the amount of information they must provide by answering "no" to the question "Are you Electronic Data Interchange capable?"]. DoD would now like to use the CCR to comply with the recently enacted Debt Collection improvement Act of 1996, which requires Federal agencies to have the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) of every contractor and to pay every contractor through electronic funds transfer. Having the necessary contractor information centrally available through the CCR where it can be accessed by both contracting and payment offices will greatly enhance DoD's ability to provide this information only once and update it annually and as key company information changes, rather than providing it in response to every solicitation. Therefore, I am proposing regulations requiring that, for awards resulting from solicitations issued after September 30, 1997, the contractor must be registered in the CCR or the contract cannot be awarded. This requirement will apply to all solicitations and awards, regardless of the media used: paper, oral, fax, electronic, etc. The only exceptions will be for purchases made with the Government wide commercial purchase card, contracting officers located outside the U.S. classified contracts, and contracts executed to support contingency or emergency operations. The purpose of this memorandum is to inform you that changes to the DoD Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement are in process to implement this requirement. A proposed rule will be issued shortly for public comment. Although the final rule may change somewhat based on the comments received, I believe it would be helpful for contractors to learn of this requirement as soon as possible. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service will include a notice about the new requirement in remittance advice furnished to contractors and on its World Wide Web site. I ask that you take whatever actions you can to inform contractors of the new requirement, such as by attaching a copy of this memo to newly issued solicitations.

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