Is the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative working for small business? Some in Congress and in the contracting community are worried that it’s not.
The concern raised by industry representatives, and by Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) at a June 13 hearing of the Contracting and Workforce Subcommittee of the House Small Business Committee, is that the use of strategic sourcing vehicles are making it difficult for small businesses to compete to provide the government with goods and services.
As the single largest purchaser in the world, the U.S. government can alter market sectors when it makes buying decisions. If participation in a few huge, government-wide contracts is limited to relative handful of companies, a possible unintended consequence could be the erosion of competition in certain sectors. And that, in turn, could affect the value the government gets from these contracts by curtailing competition in certain areas over the long term.
Keep reading this article at: http://fcw.com/articles/2013/06/13/strategic-sourcing-small-business.aspx