Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Bipartisan Senate bill introduced to protect small businesses from contracting fraud

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U.S. Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are introducing bipartisan legislation to help protect small businesses from falling victim to fraud when they register as vendors for federal contracts.

The Procurement Fraud Prevention Act would require small businesses to be notified that free assistance is available for help in procuring federal contracts through federal programs, including Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs), the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA).  Many business owners are unaware these resources exist and fall victim to scams that mislead them into paying high sums of money for contract procurement assistance.

All small businesses applying for federal contracting opportunities must register in the General Services Administration’s System for Award Management (SAM). Unfortunately, bad actors obtain businesses’ contact information from this public database and then email business owners asking for high sums of money in return for registration and contracting assistance. Some scammers impersonate government officials in order to mislead businesses into paying for these services.  As a result, many small businesses unwittingly sign up for services they were not seeking at the cost of hundreds or thousands of dollars. While various firms provide legitimate contracting assistance, bad actors intentionally use predatory tactics to drain money from small businesses.

The Procurement Fraud Prevention Act will require GSA and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure that any direct communication to a small business about its registration in a procurement system, including SAM, contains information about cost-free federal procurement technical assistance services available through PTACs, SBA, MBDA, and other programs. These services — like those offered by the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) — are readily available to help small businesses succeed.

PTACs across the country, including GTPAC, regularly report small businesses coming to them after these fraudulent encounters, seeking corrective action, with some PTACs reporting up to 10 fraudulent solicitations per week.  The Georgia Tech PTAC serves 2,200 businesses across Georgia through offices in Atlanta, Gainesville, Carrollton, Athens, Augusta, Savannah, Albany, and Warner Robins.

“The nation’s small businesses are being exploited by fraudulent operators who mislead federal contracting newcomers into believing that they must pay exorbitant registration fees in order to be eligible for government contracts,” said Terri Bennett, president of the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC).  “The legislation introduced by Senator Gary Peters and Senator Susan Collins will require federal agencies to be proactive in notifying small businesses that the help they need is available at no cost through programs like the nationwide network of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs).  This should go a long way to stop the exploitation of small businesses.”

“Small businesses would benefit greatly from the Procurement Fraud Prevention Act,” said John Arensmeyer, Founder & CEO of Small Business Majority. “Many small businesses are falling victim to scams after they register with the System for Award Management to compete for a contract because they do not realize they are entitled to free registration and procurement assistance through existing federal programs. Small business owners have enough to worry about without scammers making them think they need to pay additional fees to compete, and we encourage lawmakers to approve the Procurement Fraud Prevention Act in order to make the federal contract procurement process as painless as possible for small firms.”

SAM’s link to SBA’s small business database is temporarily down

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SAM logoSmall businesses need to be aware of the fact that the link between the System for Award Management (SAM) and the Small Business Administration’s Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS) is broken.  SBA estimates that repair of this link may make as much as six weeks.

The link between SAM and DSBS is important because it is the means by which many small businesses create and maintain a complete profile of their capabilities in SBA’s database.  Government contracting officers and large prime contractors use the DSBS database to identify small businesses for possible consideration as contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers.

SBA reports that the link between SAM and DSBS (pictured above) is down. Repair is expected to take six weeks.
SBA reports that the link between SAM and DSBS (pictured above) is down. Repair is expected to take six weeks.

Right now, registrants in SAM who try to use the link there to SBA’s DSBS (also known as “Supplemental Pages”) receive an error message.

There is a work-around for small businesses wishing to create or edit a file in DSBS.  Small businesses can access DSBS via SBA’s Global Login System (GLS).  To update your SBA Supplemental Pages via SBA’s GLS:

  • Go to https://eweb.sba.gov/gls/dsp_login.cfm.
  • You will need to register and set up an account in the GLS system if you haven’t already.
  • In GLS, you will request access to PRO-NET/DSBS and click SBA Supplemental Pages.
  • Once you are granted access to PRO-NET/DSBS, you can then click the link to update your SBA Supplemental Pages in DSBS.

Counselors with the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) are familiar with these systems and will assist any Georgia business with the SAM and DSBS registration processes.  Like all other services provided, GTPAC charges no fee for this assistance.

If you are located outside the state of Georgia, you can obtain help with registrations from the Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) nearest you.  To search for a nearby PTAC, use the map at: http://www.aptac-us.org/find-a-ptac/

WOSB repository to be replaced with new SBA portal

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SBA logo smallOn Wednesday, March 23, 2016, the U.S. Small  Business Administration (SBA) posted a notice on its website indicating that the on-line repository where women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) upload ownership and control documentation has been inactivated.  SBA’s notice indicates that the WOSB repository will be replaced within “several weeks” by a new portal in support of the WOSB certification program.

The new portal is located at https://certify.sba.gov however, as of March 25, the site is labeled as follows: “This site is a work in progress.”   SBA says that documents previously uploaded to the repository are to be migrated to the new site.

Small businesses that are interested in submitting an offer on a solicitation that has been set aside for WOSBs under the WOSB Program must submit a checklist of certification documentation prior to responding to a federal bid or proposal solicitation.   Before SBA’s new portal is functional, it is unknown what options WOSBs have for submitting their documents.  Once certification uploads are complete, agency Contracting Officers are responsible for checking the repository to ensure all required documents have been submitted.

SBA says that it has notified Contracting Officers (COs) that the WOSB system may be unavailable for several weeks and has instructed COs to contact the SBA with individual requests to verify self-certification compliance for specific WOSBs.

More information on the WOSB program and the features of the new portal can be found at: https://www.sba.gov/content/women-owned-small-business-program.

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