Widely talked about but rarely used: this used to be the story of past performance in federal contracting circles. But a new database aims to change that. The Federal Awardee Performance Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) launched this month to the chagrin of contractors with unpaid taxes and a history of shoddy work.

The FAR Council is proposing that contracting officers consider vendors past performance and work history before making award on contracts worth over half a million dollars. The smattering of other databases out there serving similar functions include DoD's past performance information retrieval system (PPIRS), the contractor performance assessment rating system (CPARS), and the excluded parties list system (EPLS). No agency strictly uses any of the systems to avoid awarding contracts to "bad" contractors.

Before the comment period ends in October, regulators are expecting that about 5,000 contractors will have to enter information into the website.