Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Reforms deliver wins for small businesses

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By some metrics, 2017 was a banner year for small business federal contractors. In May 2018, the Small Business Administration announced that, for the first time, the federal government exceeded $100 billion in prime contract awards to small businesses in fiscal year 2017.

Despite reaching this milestone, small business federal contracting still has room for improvement. For example, the SBA’s data also show that the percentage of total federal contracting dollars earned by small businesses declined for the second year in a row, falling to 23.8 percent from a historic high of 25.7 percent for fiscal year 2015.

Given these mixed results, is there a case for near-term optimism for the small business contracting community? Recent changes to federal caps on the use of micro-purchasing and simplified acquisition methods hold the promise of more agile acquisition, benefitting small businesses.

Indicative of the big changes forthcoming is a June 2018 White House Office of Management and Budget memo streamlining small business contractors’ access to federal contracting opportunities.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/7/27/reforms-deliver-wins-for-small-businesses

OPM holds 4th quarter readiness forum on July 20th

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The federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Clark Atlanta University have joined forces to present a “4th Quarter Readiness Forum” at Clark Atlanta University on July 20, 2017.

The session is designed to offer the small business community marketing and contracting tips to consider when marketing to federal agencies during the federal government’s 4th quarter (July, August and September).

Representatives from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), General Services Administration (GSA), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Education Dept., the Small Business Administration (SBA) and other agencies will be available to discuss how they utilize various contracting tools and vehicles to award contracts in this often challenging 4th quarter time frame in the government’s calendar.

Attendees also will be provided research tips on how to use the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG) data base to help you research procurement opportunities.

The session will be held at Clark Atlanta University, Cole Science Research Center at 223 James P. Brawley Dr., SW, Atlanta, GA  30314 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.

Box lunches will be available for purchase at this event.

Here’s a link to what OPM buys: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/us-office-of-personnel-management-14499326759

Attendees are required to register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-quarter-readiness-forum-tickets-35946174977.

For more information, feel free to contact Ms. Cherina Hughes at cherina.hughes@opm.gov or Art Brown at 770-732-9392 or art@lescot.com.

I think my company is a federal contractor and has regulatory obligations, but where can I look to search for that information?

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Doing business with the United States federal government can be very lucrative, but it comes with a price.

That price arrives in the form of reporting obligations, recordkeeping, outreach, and much more.

Failure to comply with all applicable regulatory requirements can also have steep consequences, so it is very important for federal contractors to ensure they are doing all that is required.

Companies are sometimes unaware that they are a covered contractor or subcontractor and, thus, find themselves unprepared for an Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) compliance review. In an effort to better prepare for these types of situations, this article is intended to provide some practical information and resources about federal contractor thresholds and where to look for federal contracts.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=598152

Defense contractors see end of budget decline

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“The tide has definitely turned in the direction of contract spending,” wrote a team directed by Andrew Hunter of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Defense Department fiscal 2016 contract obligations increased by 7 percent over the previous year, “far higher than predicted,” said the analysis of the outlook for spending on research and development, defense acquisition reform and procurement performance-based data from the Federal Procurement Data System.

Significant boosts in spending commitments were recorded by the Missile Defense Agency, the Air Force and the Navy, “driven primarily by increased obligations for large procurement programs like the C-130J transport aircraft, the KC-45A tanker aircraft, and the Trident II missile program,” CSIS said. “Even the Army, which had declined far more steeply than DoD overall throughout the budget drawdown, was virtually stable between 2015 and 2016.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/04/defense-contractors-see-end-budget-decline/136788

Agencies on a roller coaster ride with cloud spending

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cloud-spending-oct-2016Sometimes covering the federal IT community is like a bad roller coaster. The buildup when going up the big hill is exciting and stomach churning. But when the downhill falls flat, you feel a little cheated. That’s the feeling today when it comes to cloud computing. You can’t shake a stick at a conference without someone mentioning the need to the cloud. The crucial role software-, platform-, infrastructure-as-a-service play and will continue to play in the future of federal IT always is hot topic.

But then Deltek’s GovWin puts out a report that is like that flat roller coaster ride. GovWin, a market research firm, looked at preliminary federal procurement data for fiscal 2016 that shows spending on cloud computing hasn’t lived up to its hype.

GovWin found civilian agencies have awarded $75.4 million in cloud contracts in 2016 and the Defense Department, its services and agencies awarded $45.3 million in 2016. We have to take into account that these numbers DO NOT include fourth quarter spending for DoD, as military procurement reporting usually is three months behind. For example, the Army made a $62 million award to IBM for a private cloud toward the end of 2016 that’s not included in GovWin’s numbers.

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2016/10/agencies-roller-coaster-ride-cloud-spending/

Fortune 500 firms continue to receive billions in federal small business contracts

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ASBLThe American Small Business League (ASBL) has released their annual analysis of federal contracting data for fiscal year 2015, and it shows that Fortune 500 firms and thousands of other large businesses received billions of dollars of federal contracts meant for small businesses.

Specifically, ASBL found that 151 Fortune 500 firms landed government small business contracts in 2015.  ASBL’s research is based on publicly-available data pulled from from the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS).

This year marks the sixteenth consecutive year of documentation that federal small business contracts have been diverted to corporate giants.

In the past year, Verizon received over $108 million in small business contracts through their subsidiary Terremark. Some of the other firms that received small business contracts last year include: Apple, Microsoft, General Electric, Home Depot, AT&T, UPS, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Pepsi, Boeing, Oracle, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Anthem and John Deere.

GAO-GovernmentAccountabilityOffice-SealThe Government Accountability Office (GAO) released their first investigation into corruption and fraud in federal small business contracting programs in 2003. The GAO uncovered over 5,300 large businesses had been the actual recipients of billions in US Government small business contracts.

SBA sealAs far back as 2005, the SBA’s Office of Inspector General described the diversion of small business contracts going to corporate giants as, “One of the most important challenges  facing the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the entire federal government today” (OIG Report 5-15).

In 2014, Public Citizen released their investigation into fraud in government small business programs titled “Slighted.” They accused the federal government of using accounting tricks to “create false impression that small businesses are getting their share of federal procurement money.”

The House Small Business Committee recently unanimously passed H.R. 4329 titled, “Transparency in Small Business Goaling Act of 2016.” That bill was supposed to modernize the Small Business Act, but it contained no provision to halt the flow of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and thousands of other large businesses.

The ASBL’s research indicates middle-class small businesses are being shortchanged out of up to $200 billion a year. This is a result of the SBA’s exclusions of the majority of federal contracts from their calculations and the inclusion of billions in contracts to large businesses.

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fortune-500-firms-receiving-billions-in-federal-small-business-contracts-300217843.html

 

Government small business data includes billions to Fortune 500 firms

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An analysis by the American Small Business League (ASBL) has uncovered 179 Fortune 500 firms and their subsidiaries received federal small business contracts in fiscal year 2014. The study was based on the most recent information available from the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS).

The largest recipient of federal small business contracts was Verizon. Some of the other firms that received federal small business contracts in recent years include: Chevron, Apple, General Electric, AT&T, CVS, Hewlett Packard, UPS, Bank of America, Home Depot, Target, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Boeing, Oracle, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Honeywell International, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Sears and John Deere.

The ASBL research is consistent with the recent investigative report released by Public Citizen titled “Slighted: Accounting Tricks Create False Impression That Small Businesses Are Getting Their Share of Federal Procurement Money, and the Political Factors That Might Be at Play.”

ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News and RTTV along with dozens of stories in many of the largest newspapers in the country have all reported on the fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs.

As early as 2003, the Government Accountability Office uncovered over 5,300 large businesses were receiving federal small business contracts.

On June 26, the Pentagon and the SBA ignored the results of the May 6 Public Citizen report and held a joint meeting to claim 24.99 percent of all federal contracts were awarded to small businesses. Billions in contracts to Fortune 500 firms and their subsidiaries were included in that number.

sba-logoThe research by ASBL, Public Citizen and federal investigators has found the SBA’s data to be significantly inflated in two ways. The SBA uses a rule they fabricated called the “exclusionary rule” to use a much lower federal acquisition budget in calculating the percentage of awards to small businesses. The SBA also unlawfully created a “five year rule” to include billions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500 companies and their subsidiaries in their small business data.

Both the “exclusionary rule” and the “five year rule” have no basis in law and are in direct conflict with the provisions of the Small Business Act. The Small Business Act defines a small business as having no more than 1500 employees and requires small businesses receive “not less than 23 percent of the total value of all prime contract awards for each fiscal year.”

The House Small Business Committee unanimously adopted an amendment to call for a new GAO investigation into fraud in federal small business contracting programs, based on research done by Chapman’s ASBL.

Senate Small Business Committee Chairman, David Vitter, has demanded that SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet provide him with a complete list of all firms that received federal small business contacts in fiscal year 2014 for an upcoming hearing on the issue.

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/government-small-business-data-includes-billions-to-fortune-500-firms-300108165.html

SBA’s inspector general says agencies are overstating 8(a) and HUBZone contracting achievements

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On September 24, 2014, the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued Evaluation Report 14-18, Agencies are Overstating Small Disadvantaged Business and HUBZone Goaling Credit by Including Contracts Performed by Eligible Firms.  This report presents the results of an evaluation of select Section 8(a) Business Development Program and Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) contract awards.

The OIG identified over $400 million in contract actions that were awarded to ineligible firms, which may have contributed to the overstatement of small business goaling dollars for the Small Disadvantaged Business and the HUBZone Business preference programs in FY 2013.  Besides reporting inaccurate information in Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG), procuring agencies may have limited contracting opportunities for firms currently participating in the 8(a) or HUBZone programs.

Further, the OIG found that HUBZone and 8(a) certification information is not consistently transmitted to the Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) and the System for Award Management (SAM).  As a result, the affected small businesses are not getting the visibility in the DSBS database, especially the HUBZone firms, and as a result, may impact federal agencies in meeting their HUBZone procurement goals.

Additionally, the OIG also identified over $1.5 billion dollars in contract actions for which the firms were in the programs at the time of contract award, but in FY 2013 were no longer in the 8(a) or HUBZone programs.  Specifically, SBA regulations permit procuring agencies to claim Small Disadvantaged Business and HUBZone goaling credit on certain contract actions even after firms have left the program.  In the opinion of the OIG, the amount of dollars the SBA reports to Congress and the public as being performed by 8(a) and HUBZone firms in the Small Business Goaling Report is significantly impacted by the inclusion of contract actions performed by former program participants.

The OIG made two recommendations to SBA’s Associate Administrator for Government Contracting and Business Development intended to strengthen controls between SBA databases on certification data of 8(a) and HUBZone firms and information reported in FPDS-NG. The recommendations are:

  1. In coordination with the Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the General Services Administration, the SBA should strengthen controls between the SBA’s Dynamic Small Business Search Database and the System for Award Management to ensure accuracy of 8(a) and HUBZone certification data in FPDS-NG.
  2. The SBA should modify DSBS so that a firm’s profile and certification information for HUBZone and 8(a) status remains visible and accurate to agency contracting officers, or develop an alternate list to verify a firm’s status.

The OIG reports that SBA’s management has agreed to pursue both recommendations.

How many big contractors are actually posing as small businesses?

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In the sixth of its annual studies, a small business advocacy group has again blasted the government for allegedly awarding contracts to major corporations when policy intends for them to go to legitimate small businesses. The Small Business Administration offered other possible explanations for the apparent discrepancies.

The Petaluma, Calif.-based American Small Business League’s new study of fiscal 2013 procurement data concluded that of the top 100 companies receiving the highest-valued small business federal contracts, “79 were large companies that exceeded the SBA’s small business size standards, five were anomalous and 16 were legitimate small businesses.”

The group’s annual studies also show that the number of top-100 contracting companies that are large firms has risen steadily, from 60 in fiscal 2009 to 84 in fiscal 2013.

The large corporations that received the contracts in question in fiscal 2013 included Lockheed Martin Corp., General Dynamics Corp., Boeing Co., General Electric, Oracle Corp., Apple Inc., Verizon, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., PepsiCo, Comcast Corp., Intel Corp., John Deere Co. and many more, said the league, which published brief company-by-company profiles.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2014/08/how-many-big-contractors-are-actually-posing-small-businesses/91694 

Contracting facts and fictions

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Many debates on the issues in government acquisition rely on assumed “facts” that may or may not be based on reality.

However, examining the latest actual, comprehensive, uniform, and unbiased information directly provided by contracting officers (from the Federal Procurement Data System) sheds light on some discrepancies.

For example, despite the budget drama of the past two years, inflation-adjusted figures reveal that contract awards remain over 20 percent higher in 2013 than back in 2003. For the contracting profession, this news is encouraging, especially considering the wind-down of the longest war in American history and indicative of the continued increase in government contracting in providing essential citizen services.

Similarly, while awards have dropped within the General Services Administration, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State, other agencies—such as the Department of Education, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Veterans Affairs—have seen increases, as have contracts awarded to small businesses.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20140603/BLG06/306030013/Contracting-facts-fictions 

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