Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Small business goals are math mystery

By

Here’s the bottom line.

The only way to make sense of the top graphic that shows small business goal achievement for FY17 as compared to the bottom graphic showing small business obligations for FY17 (Source: FPDS-NG) is through the double and triple-dip counting of socioeconomic dollars and the counting of dollars that were not set-aside for, but won, by small business concerns.

 

If someone can prove to me otherwise, I would happily issue an apology and retraction for teeing up this same conversation every year the government claims to have met its goals for awarding prime contracts to small businesses.

Keep reading this commentary om Linkedin by Guy Timberlake at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/small-business-goals-math-mystery-zoinks-guy-timberlake/

SBA announces results of 2017 small business federal procurement scorecard

By

On Tuesday, May 22, Ken Dodds, Acting Deputy Associate Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Government Contracting and Business Development hosted a conference call to discuss the results of the 2017 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard.

The annual Scorecard is an assessment tool that measures how well federal agencies reach their small business and socio-economic prime contracting and subcontracting goals and reports agency-specific progress. The prime and subcontracting component goals include goals for small businesses, small businesses owned by women (WOSBs), small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs), service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs), and small businesses located in Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZones).

Every fiscal 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 prime contracting goal. The SBA ensures that the sum total of all of the goals exceeds the 23 percent target established by law.

Every year, the federal government spends over $400 billion dollars on goods and services, making it the largest purchaser of goods and services in the world.  The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Government Contracting and Business Development is charged with making sure that the federal government spends at least 23% of its contract dollars with small businesses annually.

SBA’s announcement notes that the federal government exceeded its small business contracting goal for the 5th consecutive year, awarding 23.88 percent in prime contract dollars to small businesses totaling $105 billion, an increase of $5 billion, to earn an “A” on SBA’s Scorecard.   This marks the first time ever small businesses received more than $100 billion in prime contracts, a very remarkable feat in an otherwise difficult contracting climate.   The federal government also awarded almost $75 billion in subcontracting dollars to small businesses.  The prime and subcontracting dollars awarded to small businesses in FY17 amount to nearly one million jobs that are supported each year through federal contracting and help to build communities and fuel the nation’s economy.

Source: https://www.sba.gov/blogs/new-sba-fy17-scorecard-shows-federal-agencies-award-record-breaking-105-billion-small-business

Number of small business prime contractors down by 25 percent since 2010

By

Federal agencies met the governmentwide small business goal for the fourth straight year in fiscal 2016. Last year also saw a $9 billion increase in the total of prime contracts going to small firms.

What these numbers aren’t showing, and what should really worry the Small Business Administration and the broader contracting community, is the number of small businesses winning prime contracts is dramatically down.

Deltek, the market research firm, analyzed the data and found a 25 percent decrease in the number of small business prime contractors since 2010.

“There are fewer small businesses that are engaging as a prime and that is the same pattern across large businesses,” said Kevin Plexico, the vice president of information solutions at Deltek, during the FedFocus 2018 event in Vienna, Virginia on Oct. 10. “The dollars are holding steady but the number of prime participants is declining.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2017/10/number-of-small-business-prime-contractors-down-by-25-percent-since-2010/

Accuracy of federal small business contracting data challenged

By

Published on Forbes.com on June 5th, an article entitled, “Trump Administration Fails At Creating Jobs By Missing Small Business Contract Targets,” contends that the Small Business Administration (SBA) significantly inflates government small business data by including billions in federal contracts to Fortune 500 firms in the volume of contracts the SBA claimed were awarded to small businesses.

The author of the article, Professor Charles Tiefer, is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on government contracting, federal contracting law and legislation. He is a Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law.  Professor Tiefer has written several legal opinions that challenge the accuracy of small business contracting data released by the SBA.

The SBA released their report for fiscal year 2016 claiming small businesses received $99.96 billion in federal contracts and 24.34 percent of all federal contracts in 2016.

In his article, Professor Tiefer states, “Of the $99.96 billion the SBA claimed went to small businesses, it appears no more than 50% of that number went to firms that currently legally qualify as small businesses. In reality, legitimate small businesses may well have received no more than $50 billion in federal contracts and subcontracts in FY 2016. That would come out to just mid-single digit percentages of the full level of federal acquisitions for FY 2016, a far cry from the 24.34 percent claimed by the SBA.”

Tiefer also accuses the SBA of excluding the majority of federal acquisitions from their calculations in claiming small businesses received 24.34 percent of all federal contracts. He states, “First, the SBA is counting federal acquisitions for FY 2016 at around $410 billion. That is an artificial and unconvincing low figure. I have written in the past that the actual figure is more than double that.”

Professor Tiefer served as solicitor and deputy general counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives for 11 years. He also served as Commissioner on the Congressionally chartered, federal Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2008-2011.

Source: http://www.einnews.com/pr_news/388077084/professor-charles-tiefer-challenges-accuracy-of-government-small-business-data

Agencies largely maintain small business contracting scores

By

Under the new leadership of Trump appointee Linda McMahon, the Small Business Administration last week released its annual scorecard on federal agencies’ small business contracting, proclaiming that the government overall met its mandatory goals for the fourth year running.

The average agency award rate of 24.34 percent of contracting dollars in fiscal 2016 going to qualified small businesses totaled $99.96 billion, a bump-up of $9 billion over fiscal 2015, SBA reported. While all the goals were met, the percentages of money going to small firms were slightly lower than those of fiscal 2015.

Prime contracting dollars rose in all set-aside categories, and the government exceeded the Small Disadvantaged Business goal and had its highest achievement ever for percentage of contract dollars awarded to Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned small businesses.

“It is a win-win for federal agencies to get small business contracts into the hands of the innovative small business owners that create jobs in their communities and help to fuel the nation’s economy,” McMahon said.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2017/05/agencies-largely-maintain-small-business-contracting-scores/138211/

DoD identifies and explains small business goals for buying commands

By

Did you know that goals are in place to ensure that small businesses have the maximum practicable opportunity to compete for contracts with the federal government?

In fact, each federal agency must set annual goals for participation in its contracts by small businesses and specific groups of small businesses, including woman-owned small businesses (WOSBs) small-disadvantaged businesses (SDBs), HUBZone-certified small businesses and service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs).

Dr. James Galvin, the Acting Director of the  Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) for the Dept. of Defense, negotiates DoD-wide small business goals with the Small Business Administration (SBA).  Dr. Galvin also assigns specific small business goals to DoD buying commands.  In fiscal year 2016, DoD exceeded its small business prime contracting goal, awarding more than $57 billion in prime contracts to small businesses.

Government-wide Small Business Contracting Goals
  • 23 percent of prime contracts for small businesses
  • 5 percent of prime and subcontracts for WOSBs
  • 5 percent of prime and subcontracts for SDBs
  • 3 percent of prime and subcontracts for HUBZone-certified small businesses
  • 3 percent of prime and subcontracts for SDVOSBs
How Agency Goals are Negotiated and Established

Every year, SBA works with federal agencies to establish small business contracting goals. SBA ensures that the sum total of all of the individual agency goals exceeds the 23 percent target established by Congress.

Here is how the process works:

  1. SBA negotiates with agencies, including DoD, to establish individual agency goals that, in the aggregate, constitute government-wide goals. SBA also negotiates a small business subcontracting goal based on recent achievement levels. SBA establishes the government-wide and agency socio-economic category goals at their statutory levels.
  2. Before the beginning of the fiscal year, SBA reviews agency year-to-date performance and agencies submit their proposed goals to SBA.
  3. SBA’s Office of Government Contracting determines if these individual agency goals, in the aggregate, meet or exceed the government-wide statutorily mandated goals in each small business category.
  4. SBA notifies the agencies of their final agency goals.
DoD Small Business Prime Contracting Goals

DoD’s fiscal year 2017 small business prime contracting goal is 22 percent. In other words, we aim to award at least 22 percent of small-business-eligible prime-contract spending to small businesses in fiscal year 2017. We also have prime contracting goals for WOSBs (5 percent), SDBs (5 percent), HUBZone-certified small businesses (3 percent) and SDVOSBs (3 percent).

The federal government has the following statutory goals for government-wide small business procurement:

In fiscal year 2016, DoD spent more than 60 percent of the federal procurement budget eligible for small businesses.
DoD Small Business Subcontracting Goals

In addition to prime contracting goals, DoD has goals for awarding subcontracting spending to small businesses. Our fiscal year 2017 subcontracting goal is 34 percent. In addition to the overall subcontracting goal, we have subcontracting goals for WOSBs (5 percent), SDBs (5 percent), HUBZone-certified small businesses (3 percent) and SDVOSBs (3 percent).

Component and Agency Small Business Prime Contracting Goals

DoD’s overall fiscal year 2017 small business prime contracting goal is 22 percent, but the Army’s fiscal year 2017 small business prime contracting goal is 26 percent. Because the Army buys a lot of products and services provided by small businesses, e.g., construction, its goal is higher than DoD’s overall goal. The Navy and Air Force have goals that are lower than DoD’s overall goal because they buy a lot of aircraft and ships, which are typically supplied by large businesses.

The chart below identifies the fiscal year 2017 prime contracting goals for 22 DoD buying commands.

Calculation of Achievements

At the end of every fiscal year, SBA measures DoD’s achievements against our goals. SBA requests a report from the Federal Procurement Data Center calculating the prime and subcontract statistical achievements. If we fail to achieve any proposed prime or subcontracting goal, we are required to submit a justification-and-corrective-action plan to SBA.

Small Business Procurement Scorecard

SBA releases an annual scorecard to measure how well federal agencies reach their small business and socio-economic prime contracting and subcontracting goals.

DoD’s fiscal year 2017 grade will be based on the following four factors:

  • Prime contracting (50 percent)
  • Subcontracting (20 percent)
  • Compliance with the requirements of Section 15(k) of the Small Business Act (20 percent)
  • Comparison of the number of prime contracts awarded to small businesses in fiscal year 2017 versus fiscal year 2016 (10 percent)
DoD Fiscal Year 2016 Scorecard Grade

In fiscal year 2016, DoD exceeded its small business prime contracting goal of 21.26 percent, achieving 22.94 percent. The SBA’s fiscal year 2016 small business procurement scorecard awarded DoD an “A.”  DoD exceeded three out of five of its small business prime contracting goals.

Civilian Agency Goals

In addition to DoD, SBA negotiates small business procurement goals with 23 civilian agencies. Click here to see the fiscal year 2017 goals for civilian agencies.

Subscribe

Email osd.business.defense@mail.mil with “subscribe” in the subject line to receive important policy updates from DoD OSBP.

Source: https://medium.com/@BusinessDefense/dod-fy-2017-small-business-goals-4fb1c1c61e61.

2016 SBA scorecard includes ups, downs, impact of overseas contracts

By

If one is a chance, two’s a coincidence, and three is a pattern, does four set a standard?

For the fourth year in a row, the federal government reached its small business contracting goals, spending nearly $100 billion — or 24 percent of its contracting dollars — on small businesses.

That’s a $9 billion increase over fiscal 2015 numbers. The government also scored an A+ on its procurement scorecard, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA).

“It is a win-win for federal agencies to get small business contracts into the hands of the innovative small business owners that create jobs in their communities and help to fuel the nation’s economy,” said SBA Administrator Linda McMahon in a statement.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/contractsawards/2017/05/13929632016-sba-scorecard-includes-ups-downs-impact-of-overseas-contracts/

For another view of this news story see: “Government Misses HUBZone, WOSB Goals–But Gets “A” Grade Anyway” at: http://smallgovcon.com/women-owned-small-business-program/government-misses-hubzone-wosb-goals-but-gets-a-grade-anyway

 

Women-owned small businesses still underrepresented on government’s biggest contracts

By

Taken as a whole, the Government-wide performance metrics for small business utilization are encouraging.

The Small Business Administration’s FY2015 report card shows that the Government exceeded its prime contracting goals across four of the five socioeconomic categories measured. Moreover, the amount of federal spend going to small businesses reached an all-time high of over 25%.

These numbers do not tell the whole story, however. The 5% goal for WOSBs has been in place since 1994, and since at least 2008, major campaigns have aimed to bridge the gap. In 2014, WOSBs became eligible for sole-source awards, an important means of gaining a foothold in the federal marketplace.

 

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/govcon-voices/govconvoices-women-owned-small-businesses-still-underrepresented-on-governments-biggest-contracts/

Small business group renews suit challenging SBA’s goal claims

By

ASBLThe small but vocal American Small Business League this week continued its long-standing challenge to the Small Business Administration’s claims that agencies are meeting their statutory goals in awarding contracts to qualified small businesses.

In an appeal filed in the Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco, the group’s attorney’s challenged a May ruling in the case naming SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet and seeking “injunctive and other appropriate relief” to prevent the SBA from “continuing to misrepresent the attainment of small business contracting goals to Congress and the American public.”

The league has long charged that definitions used by the SBA have allowed many large Fortune 500 companies through subsidiaries to win contracts intended as set-asides for qualified small firms.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/contracting/2016/11/small-business-group-renews-suit-challenging-sbas-goal-claims/133290/

SBA fights back on contracting goals lawsuit

By

SBA logo smallThe Small Business Administration (SBA) is asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit claiming it uses “creative accounting” for federal contracting benchmarks.

SBA filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in May by the American Small Business League, related to the agency’s annual goaling report.

ASBL“SBA’s requirement to publish agency remediation plans stems directly from the Small Business Act,” SBA counsel stated in court documents. “Though the implementation of this requirement is tied to the outcomes published in the goaling reports, it is the statute — not the reports — which binds SBA to act. Moreover, the alleged legal consequences for [ASBL] are speculative and result not from SBA’s actions but from individual contracting decisions across multiple federal agencies.”

ASBL in a statement called the motion a dodging of fraudulent policies.

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/contractsawards/2016/08/sba-fights-back-contracting-goals-lawsuit/

Read ASBL’s response to SBA’s motion at: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sba-denies-responsibility-for-fraudulent-policies-in-federal-injunction-case-asbl-reports-300308268.html 

Contracting News

Read More

Contracting Tips

Read More

GTPAC News

Read More

Georgia Tech News

Read More