# Administrative Agreement A settlement between a federal agency and a contractor facing suspension or debarment, in which the company accepts obligations — compliance programmes, independent monitors, certifications, reporting — and in exchange is neither suspended nor debarred. It keeps its eligibility and keeps selling. It is the quietest of the ways an exclusion proceeding can end, and the most valuable to a large contractor. In fiscal year 2023, ten federal agencies entered 47 administrative agreements government-wide, against 1,009 debarments: roughly one agreement for every twenty-one exclusions. The disclosure arrangement is the part worth knowing. Congress requires each administrative agreement resolving a suspension or debarment proceeding to be entered in the federal integrity database, and the regulation gives agencies three working days to do it. But the statute's list of who may read that database covers acquisition officials, other government officials the General Services Administration designates, and on request the chairman and ranking member of the relevant congressional committees. It contains no public-access provision — unlike the repealed predecessor statute, which had directed public posting. So the exit that ends a contracting relationship appears on a public list, and the exit that preserves it does not. The instrument is the procurement cousin of the deferred and non-prosecution agreements used on the criminal side, and a company facing both tracks may be negotiating two settlements at once. ## See also - [[How a Federal Contractor Is Suspended and Debarred]] - [[Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System]] - [[Deferred and Non-Prosecution Agreement Crosswalk]] - [[Present Responsibility]]