§ 4270.15 Oversight and monitoring.

(a) General. USDA will conduct oversight and monitoring of Participating Organizations, Designated Representatives, and Other Entities involved with the BioPreferred Program to ensure compliance with this part. This oversight may include, but not be limited to, conducting facility visits to Participating Organizations that have Certified Biobased Products and their Designated Representatives. Participating Organizations are required to cooperate fully with all USDA audit efforts for the enforcement of the BioPreferred Program requirements. (b) Biobased Content Testing. USDA will conduct Biobased Content Testing of Certified Biobased Products as described in § 4270.12(b)(1) to ensure compliance with this part. (c) Inspection of records. Participating Organizations must allow Federal representatives access to the records required under § 4270.14 for inspection and copying during normal business hours. (d) Audits. USDA will conduct an annual desk audit on an ongoing basis to verify that the product and company information supplied by Participating Organizations remain valid. Through the BioPreferred Program website (biopreferred.gov), Participating Organizations will be asked to confirm that they still manufacture the product, that the formulation remains the same, and that the information described under § 4270.9(a)(1) remains valid. Participants may also be asked for additional supplemental information. (1) If a Participating Organization indicates that their product or company information needs to be updated during an annual desk audit, these updates will be incorporated into the BioPreferred Program website (biopreferred.gov). If it is indicated that a product is no longer manufactured, the product information will be removed from the BioPreferred Program website (biopreferred.gov). (2) If a Participating Organization fails to complete an annual desk audit, the participant will be considered to be in noncompliance with this part, and the Participating Organization and associated product information will be removed from the BioPreferred Program website (biopreferred.gov). USDA reserves the right to revoke product certification for failure to participate in an audit.