Federal Contractor Public-Record Source Map

This page maps the public-record sources that practitioners commonly use when researching a federal contractor. For each source, it explains what the source is best used for, what identifiers it works with, whether it is publicly accessible, and — importantly — what the source does not establish on its own.

It is written for legal, compliance, diligence, consulting, transaction, and teaming practitioners who need to orient themselves in the federal public-record landscape. It is not legal advice, and it is not a checklist that every source must be consulted for every question. Which sources matter depends entirely on the question being asked.

The scope here is public records: information that a member of the public can retrieve from official federal and state systems, often at no cost. Public records illuminate a great deal about a federal contractor's registration, awards, and certain public indicators, but they leave many questions unanswered. Those boundaries are described throughout.

One clarification about Coleman, the publisher of this resource: Coleman is a federal contractor public-record diligence product. Discussing a source on this page does not mean Coleman queries it. The sources Coleman currently connects to are identified plainly in the table below and in the closing section.

The first question in most contractor research is which legal entity you are actually looking at. Federal registration data is organized around identifiers, and getting the identifier right is what separates one similarly named contractor from another.

SAM.gov Entity Information is the primary registration source. It can show a registered entity's legal business name, any "doing business as" name, its Unique Entity ID (UEI), CAGE code, physical address, entity structure, and primary NAICS code. These fields are the practical anchors for identity: the UEI and CAGE are more reliable reference points than a name, because contractor names are frequently similar, abbreviated, or shared across unrelated firms.

DLA CAGE Search & Inquiry (CSI) is a companion lookup. Use DLA CAGE Search & Inquiry to look up a CAGE or NCAGE code and the associated DLA record. CSI replaced the older BINCS system. A matching CAGE record can help you associate a code with a registered entity, but it does not by itself establish legal ownership or resolve identity questions on its own.

Neither source independently establishes who owns or controls an entity. Registration data reflects what an entity has reported about itself. Where the name is ambiguous — a common situation with contractors that share words like "technologies," "solutions," or a founder's surname — the identifiers are the disambiguating detail, and even then careful reading is required.

Two public systems describe federal awards, and they serve different purposes.

USAspending.gov is the government's public spending resource, covering both procurement (contract) awards and financial assistance such as grants. It is free and requires no sign-in. It is well suited to a first-pass view of an awardee's federal footprint: which agencies have transacted with a recipient, how awards concentrate, and which awards are largest. Award figures generally reflect amounts obligated rather than amounts actually spent, and recipient matching is name- and identifier-based, so summaries should be read as an overview rather than an accounting.

SAM.gov Contract Awards holds the detailed reported prime contract-action data that was previously searched through FPDS.gov and its ezSearch tool. That public-facing functionality has moved into SAM.gov, which now requires a SAM.gov account to search the detailed contract data. FPDS.gov should no longer be described as the standalone public destination for this data.

Coleman connects to USAspending for award information. Coleman does not query SAM.gov Contract Awards or FPDS directly.

Both systems depend on data reported by agencies, so timing lags and reporting caveats apply, and an entity's award history as shown in either system is a reported view rather than a full ledger.

Several distinct systems address whether a party carries a public exclusion or a reported responsibility concern. They answer different questions, and none of them, alone, supports a conclusion that a party is free of issues.

SAM.gov Exclusions is the public record of federal exclusions (the function once handled by EPLS, which is historical). It is searchable by name and identifier. Exclusion searches turn on name and identifier matching, so a possible match needs to be interpreted rather than accepted at face value.

SAM Responsibility/Qualification holds selected responsibility and integrity records formerly associated with FAPIIS — for example, certain terminations and non-responsibility determinations. This public information does not include CPARS past-performance evaluations, which are not public; the two should not be conflated.

HHS-OIG LEIE is the healthcare-exclusion list. It is relevant when the entity operates in healthcare, is updated monthly, and requires an SSN or EIN to confirm that a name match is the same party.

OFAC Sanctions List Service identifies potential matches against U.S. sanctions lists. It is a screening tool that returns possible matches for further review, not a determination.

A single search in any one of these systems addresses only that system's question. No one of them supports a statement that a party is without exclusions or concerns.

A distinction specific to Coleman belongs here: Coleman does not search the detailed SAM.gov Exclusions database. It surfaces only the entity-registration-level exclusion-status flag that accompanies the SAM Entity Management data it retrieves. That flag and a search of the detailed Exclusions records are not equivalent.

Public dispute and enforcement records are useful context, but they are partial by nature, and Coleman does not currently search any of them.

GAO bid protest decisions are published protest decisions, searchable by party name or B-number. Not every protest results in a published decision — matters that are dismissed, withdrawn, or resolved through corrective action may not appear — and recent decisions can lag.

The U.S. Court of Federal Claims, accessed through PACER, holds federal court dockets and filings, including certain post-award protest and contract litigation. PACER is fee-based; some dockets and documents are available free through CourtListener/RECAP. CourtListener/RECAP coverage is not complete, and dockets require reading and interpretation.

DOJ enforcement press releases announce federal enforcement actions and settlements. They are announcements rather than a full record, and an allegation described in a release is not a finding of liability.

Because each of these sources is selective, the absence of a party from any one search is not evidence of a spotless history. These records support leads and context, not conclusions.

Public records are strongest on registration, identifiers, and reported awards. They are weakest — and frequently silent — on the questions that most often matter in a transaction or engagement. Public data alone generally cannot establish beneficial ownership with certainty, the full set of corporate relationships, an entity's financial condition, contract performance quality, the effectiveness of internal compliance, security-clearance posture, or the full picture of litigation an entity has been involved in. It does not resolve legal questions, and it does not forecast future outcomes.

Public sources can sometimes illuminate a piece of one of these — a filing may hint at ownership, a docket may reveal a dispute — but a partial signal is not the whole answer, and treating a partial signal as the whole answer can produce a misleading first-pass assessment.

Coleman compiles a first-pass, source-labeled review of selected SAM.gov entity-registration information and USAspending federal awards, applies conservative reconciliation guardrails, and shows material coverage limitations.

In terms of the sources on this page:

• Connected: SAM.gov Entity Management and USAspending.gov.
• Conditional: CMS Hospital Compare and Provider of Services (POS) datasets, for certain healthcare-related entities.
• Not connected: every other source listed on this page, including SAM.gov Exclusions (detailed search), SAM Responsibility/Qualification, SAM.gov Contract Awards, DLA CAGE Search & Inquiry, SBA Small Business Search and certification systems, HHS-OIG LEIE, OFAC, GAO, the Court of Federal Claims and PACER, DOJ enforcement records, SEC EDGAR, and state corporation registries.

Discussing a source in this map does not mean Coleman searches it.

Coleman does not independently confirm legal identity, UEI, CAGE, or SBA certifications; it does not perform detailed suspension or debarment screening; it does not search litigation or protests; and it does not assemble a full award history. When Coleman cannot reconcile a search to an acceptable SAM entity, it reports that outcome rather than guessing — which reflects the limits of the search, not a statement about whether the contractor exists or is registered.

A short walkthrough of what Coleman produces is available in the product demo, and an example of the output is described under the GovCon due diligence report. Coleman's homepage is at colemanai.app.