The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) last week released its annual Small Business Procurement Scorecards, which provide an assessment of each federal agency’s annual small business contracting achievement against its goal using a grading system of A+ through F. Government-wide, agencies received an “A” in FY 2015, reflecting achievement of small business goals in all categories except on behalf of HUBZone firms.
According to the SBA, the federal government reached its small business federal contracting goal for the third consecutive year, awarding 25.75 percent in federal contracts to small businesses totaling $90.7 billion. The 25.75 percent of contracts awarded to small businesses represent the highest ever percentage of contracts awarded to small businesses by the government.
Last month, the SBA announced at a press conference that for the first time in history, the federal government has met the 5 percent goal for contracting with women-owned small businesses and record achievements for service disabled veteran-owned and small disadvantaged businesses. More information about these contracting figures can be found here.
At the individual agency level, five agencies’ grades increased from FY 2014, 16 agencies’ grades stayed the same and 3 agencies’ grades decreased. The agency breakdown is as follows:
- 3 agencies received an “A+” (GSA, SBA, and DOT)
- 18 agencies received an “A”
- 3 agencies received a “B” (HHS, NASA, and VA)
- No agencies received a C, D, or F
Despite the fact that SBA awarded an “A” grade to 18 agencies, most of them did not meet all of the government’s overall small business goals. The Energy Department, for example, did not meet any of the government’s five small business goals. USAID met only two of the five goals. Of the 18 agencies receiving a score of “A,” only Agriculture, Homeland Security, Interior, State, Treasury, and NRC met all five governmentwide goals.
About SBA’s Scorecard
According to the SBA, its annual Scorecard is an assessment tool to: 1) measure how well federal agencies reach their small business and socio-economic prime contracting and subcontracting goals, 2) provide accurate and transparent contracting data, and 3) report agency-specific progress.
Every year, the SBA works with each agency to set their prime and subcontracting goals and their grades are based on the agreed upon goals. Each federal agency has a different small business contracting goal, determined annually in consultation with SBA. SBA ensures that the sum total of all of the goals exceeds the 23 percent target established by law.
The individual agency scorecards released by SBA, as well as a detailed explanation of the scorecard methodology, is available online at: https://www.sba.gov/contracting/finding-government-customers/see-agency-small-business-scorecards.
Since SBA started the current small business procurement scorecard methodology in FY 2009, six agencies have received a grade of “A+” or “A” seven fiscal years in a row (FY 2009 through FY 2015): the Departments of Agriculture, Homeland Security, Interior, Labor, Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The overall federal small business prime contracting performance released on April 28, 2016 by the SBA, as well as a detailed explanation of the calculations, is available online at http://go.usa.gov/Nxxd.
