Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

Georgia DOT commissioner resigns

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The state’s top transportation official, responsible for building and repairing highways and bridges across the state, has resigned under pressure from his board. Vance Smith, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, resigned effective Dec. 31 and will only serve in an advisory capacity until then.

The move followed a two-and-a-half-hour closed-door board meeting, and months of frustration from board members who feared critical personnel decisions were not being made as key posts at the top went unfilled. In addition, some felt that the department was not funding enough roadwork, and that money that could be paving roads and supporting Georgia contractors was not being spent.
“The contractors, they’re drying up,” said board member Jay Shaw. “We need to be producing jobs.”
Underlying issues about money and projects have traditionally stirred tensions between DOT staff and board members who get lobbied by interest groups. But even for Smith’s supporters, who praised him for restoring morale at the department, the continuing lack of full-time staff in key department positions provided a clear target that was hard to defend.
Board Chairman Rudy Bowen said that the board felt it was time “to go in a different direction.”
Last week Smith filled a crucial and long-expected vacancy, for the director of the department’s toll road program, with a top DOT official who was already doing double duty.  That toll program director protects Georgia’s interests across the negotiating table from the global contractors  vying for jobs like the estimated $1 billion I-75/I-575 optional toll lane project.
“You’re going to have six months probably of really tough negotiations,” as well as contracting with a developer on a downtown terminal, said Brandon Beach, the chairman of the board committee that oversees the program.  “Those are two major infrastructure projects that are going to be full time for someone to handle.”
For the time being, Chief Engineer Gerald Ross will continue to serve as the director of the toll program, also known as the P3 program. Until Wednesday Ross was serving as the deputy commissioner as well.  Asked Wednesday if he could effectively perform as the P3 director as well as his other duties, Ross did not respond.
The new deputy commissioner, Keith Golden, was plucked from the ranks Wednesday by Smith at the behest of the board, and will also serve as acting commissioner while the board looks for a permanent replacement. The DOT Commissioner leads the department’s 4,600 employees and oversees its $2 billion budget.
Names of possible candidates have been floated from the Legislature and even the DOT board, as well as outside staffers such as former Georgia Regional Transportation Authority director Steve Stancil.
Golden was the director of the department’s permitting and operations division, overseeing traffic operations functions like road signs, mowing roadside grass and patching pavement holes.
Some staff expressed anger at Smith’s ouster, calling him a man of integrity.
Shaw acknowledged that one issue for him with Smith was the recent case of a coastal road project where DOT staff had short-listed a small group of contractors eligible to bid that included no companies from Georgia.  Shaw and other board members protested to Smith that Georgia companies should at least get a chance to submit bids, but Smith backed the staff decision.
In addition, there was the longstanding issue of how much money gets spent on contracts every month.
Bill Hammack, president of the state’s largest road contractor, C.W. Matthews Contracting Co., said the entire highway construction industry was suffering from low amounts of roadwork. He said that in the “painful” last fiscal year the department had authorized about $1 billion worth of work but awarded only $660 million, as bids came in low or projects were withdrawn without the extra money being quickly recycled.  DOT staff could not verify those figures late Wednesday but cited higher ones for a more recent period.
In addition to the leadership and money issues, board members have questioned Smith’s communications style. When he made the decision over the toll road program, most of the board members who oversee that program said they had not discussed the move with Smith or heard of it before they got an e-mail notification the day of the announcement.
Smith declined to respond to a reporter’s questions, saying, “You know I never comment.”
The board elected Smith, a 17-year Republican state representative from Pine Mountain, as DOT commissioner in June 2009.

—  by  Ariel Hart – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution – 9:31 p.m. Wednesday, September 7, 2011 – at http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/dot-commissioner-resigns-1161646.html

How one small business found its niche and doubled in size

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Nearly doubling your revenue in one year is remarkable in itself. That 5 AM Solutions Inc. did it in an uncertain economy and with less government contracting dollars is one of the reasons the Reston, Va.-based company holds the No. 41 spot on this year’s Washington Technology Fast 50 list.

Between 2009 and 2010, 5 AM’s revenue rocketed from $7.2 million to $13.9 million, and its compounded annual growth rate over the past five years is 140.29 percent.

“We bring some really unique talent to the field where there’s a lot of opportunity,” said Brent Gendleman, president and CEO of 5 AM. The company develops software for life science and health professionals, and health information technology is a burgeoning field.

“I think our brand of transparent process and high-quality folks and team players has some resonance,” he added. “There’s just a huge opportunity for our government clients to take advantage.”

Good workers are great, but only if there’s work for them to do. Contract wins that put the company in the thick of two of the country’s biggest health IT initiatives have ensured that the 5 AM team stays busy. Since July 2006, the company has been handling software engineering for the National Cancer Institute’s caArray open-source Web-based array data management system, under a $9.25 million contract. The system helps translational cancer research by acquiring, disseminating and aggregating information that can be shared via the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid.

In April, 5AM won a $5.1 million contract to provide software engineering for the National Health Information Network’s CONNECT open-source software, which enables secure electronic health data exchange among health care providers, insurers, government agencies and consumer services.

With those customers and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Office of the Surgeon General established, Gendleman said he is setting his sights on the Veterans Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

“We are hopeful that some of the things that we have learned at the other agencies can be applied there to a very important and direct population that we would love to get engaged with directly,” he said of VA.

Some of those lessons include being transparent to establish trust. “That trust is between not just two individuals but between the company and the client that they’re serving. There’s a partnership – and it really is a partnership – that they’re trying to achieve,” Gendleman said.

Knowing when to quit is also crucial. “You want to fail as quickly as possible,” he added. “The longer you wait, the more expensive it gets and who wants that? Nobody. It’s not everybody’s instinct but failing as fast as possible is absolutely the most important thing to do. When you’re talking about medicine, you want to know if something’s not working now so you can try something different and don’t hurt someone. On the science side, it’s the same thing.”

Besides adding to its workload, 5 AM plans to add to its employee roster. The company, which has lost only three workers in the past four years, started with two employees in 2003, now has 48 and aims for 70 employees by next summer. Most of the hires will be in the engineering department.

Going forward, federal budget concerns will be the company’s main challenge, Gendleman said.

“People are very reluctant to say ‘Let’s do this initiative or that initiative’ when they don’t know if they’re going to get the funding or not,” he said.
But even that could be an opportunity, Gendleman added. “Sometimes the cuts really do allow for people to take a breath and reevaluate and reprioritize, and sometimes you’re in the plus part of that.”

About the Author: Stephanie Kanowitz is a contributing writer to Washington Technology. Published Aug. 11, 2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2011/08/01/fast-50-5am-solutions.aspx?s=wtdaily_120811.

Project management consultants expand business with help from Georgia Tech

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Project Success, Inc. (PSI), an Atlanta-based project management training and
consulting firm, recently utilized the services of Georgia Tech’s Procurement
Assistance Center (GTPAC) to expand its business into the government sector.
GTPAC is a program that assists companies with all aspects of government
procurement processes.

“We’ve been in business for almost 28 years now, and we teach the practical
aspects of project management. We work in all industry sectors, in
manufacturing, energy, marketing, software and IT,” said David Halm, a senior
consultant at the company. “With the downturn in the economy in late 2008, we
recognized that the manufacturing sector was going to continue to decline, so we
took a suggestion from one of our consultants to get on the U.S. General
Services Administration schedule.”

The General Services Administration (GSA) oversees the business of the U.S.
federal government. According to its website, GSA supplies federal purchasers
with “cost-effective, high-quality products and services from commercial
vendors.” Halm was referred to GTPAC after attending a GSA-sponsored event in
Atlanta.

“We learned about the educational and classroom offerings through GTPAC, and
I took several classes, including Introduction to Government Contracting,
Understanding the GSA Schedules Process and Using the Computer to Win Government
Contracts,” Halm recalled. “Those classes allowed me to get connected to Chuck
Schadl, director of GTPAC, and Joe Beaulieu, a procurement counselor. As we
researched the GSA requirements, we jotted down ideas about the best way to
structure our proposal.”

Beaulieu helped PSI structure a proposal under GSA’s Mission Oriented
Business Integrated Services, or MOBIS. Under the MOBIS schedule, PSI may
provide mission oriented business integrated services and products to U.S.
Government agencies. The MOBIS objective is to enable federal agencies to
improve performance, quality, timeliness and efficiencies throughout their
organizations.

“Getting a GSA contract basically means that all the negotiating points – the
pricing, the delivery – all those terms have already been negotiated. So a
government agency can purchase from Project Success through the GSA process. It
opens a lot of doors,” Halm noted. “In the GSA seminar, the speaker said that
more than 90 percent of companies that set out to get a GSA contract never get
there. Having this contract offers great marketing potential and has helped us
maintain and generate business in this downturn.”

GTPAC, part of the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute, provides
no-cost assistance with government procurement to any company licensed to do
business in Georgia. Each year, GTPAC conducts seminars in Albany, Athens,
Atlanta, Augusta, Carrollton, Columbus, Gainesville, Rockmart, Savannah and
Warner Robins. The center assists companies with all aspects of federal, state
and local government procurement processes, including solicitation analysis,
proposal preparation, pre- and post-award counseling, and quality and accounting
systems. Procurement counselors also analyze whether companies have the
potential for participating in the government procurement process.

“It’s very useful to be able to use GTPAC as a sounding board, because the
counselors understand the specific requirements,” Halm said. “In dealing with
us, Joe helped us maintain the confidence we needed to stay on track. GTPAC
provided tangible, direct guidance, as well as the more intangible, but equally
important, encouragement.”

About Enterprise Innovation Institute:

The Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute helps companies,
entrepreneurs, economic developers and communities improve their competitiveness
through the application of science, technology and innovation. It is one of the
most comprehensive university-based programs of business and industry
assistance, technology commercialization and economic development in the
nation.

Enterprise Innovation Institute

Georgia Institute of Technology

75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314

Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail: JohnToon@innovate.gatech.edu

Writer: Nancy Fullbright, published Aug. 9, 2011

“Fast 50” small business winners have cause for celebration, concern

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This year is no exception. The companies making Washington Technology’s top 50 list of small businesses (“The Fast 50”) have had extraordinary growth, starting with No. 1 company, SAVA Workforce Solutions, which achieved a five-year compound annual growth rate of 326.05 percent.

The small businesses on this list have shown an ability to adapt and change with the market. Many are taking advantage of various small business programs to build businesses that will stand the test of time.

The types of companies that populate the Fast 50 range from resellers to consultants and IT services providers to research and development firms. The list is entrepreneur heavy with most companies having a founder or team of founders at the helm.

The aggregate value of 2010 revenue for the Fast 50 is $1.4 billion. The No. 50 company NextPoint Group, came in with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 62.49 percent. Not too shabby.

So there is plenty for these companies to celebrate, but as you read the profiles of the Fast 50 we are highlighting here, you’ll quickly realize that these companies, despite their growth, also are facing a tough market and they know it.

Just like their larger brethren in the government market, their customers are facing austere budgets with dim prospects for the rampant growth of the past decade.

The response from these companies comes in several shapes. First, there is a push to control costs because government agencies are putting more and more emphasis on price in the contract bids they evaluate.

That in turn puts pressure on contractors to control their own costs if they want to remain profitable.

“If your overhead rates are low, you’ll stand a better chance of winning,” said SAVA’s general manager David Poirier.

The key is to balance bidding the best people with controlling costs. For Poirier that is the key to success.

In the current budget environment customers are reticent to move on new projects.

“People are very reluctant to say ‘Let’s do this initiative or that initiative’ when they don’t know if they’re going to get the funding or not,” said Brent Gendleman, president and CEO of 5AM Solutions, No. 41 with a 75.17 percent compound annual growth rate.

Another impact of the tighter budgets is increasing competition.

As we see funding streams shift around and priorities shift and certain programs being defunded, companies that can be flexible and agile really gain a sustaining advantage in their ability to compete,” said Dawn Halfaker, president and CEO of Halfaker and Associates, No. 11 with 153.32 percent five-year growth rate.

But the problems of tight purse strings and program at risk of losing funding can create opportunities as agencies scramble to perform their missions with fewer resources.

“Sometimes we’re able to help with that process and perhaps achieve savings,” said Nicole Geller, CEO of GCS Inc., No. 35 with 82.45 percent compound annual growth rate.

“Sometimes the cuts really do allow for people to take a breath and reevaluate and reprioritize, and sometimes you’re in the plus part of that,” Gendleman said.

A paramount focus for these companies is performance, making sure they are delivering value to their customers.

“Regardless of company size, political climate or the budget battle, if you’re good at what you do and have happy customers, I think you’re well-positioned for success,” said Christopher Romani, president and CEO of Integrity Management Consulting, No. 7 with a 188.18 percent compound annual growth rate.

The theme of a customer focus and a dedication to the customers mission is repeated often by the Fast 50 companies. It is both a passion for the market and a survival instinct.

“You have to make sure you’re keeping an eye on what the government is buying and where [government buyers] are spending their money,” said Frank Blair, managing partner of Edaptive Systems, No. 19 with a 105.2 percent growth rate. “Because if you’re not flexible enough to change direction, you’re going to get mauled.”

MORE FAST 50

2011 Fast 50 rankings

Fast 50 profiles

About the Fast 50

— About the Author: Nick Wakeman is the editor-in-chief of Washington Technology.   This article was published 8/1/2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/Articles/2011/08/01/FAST-50-intro.aspx?s=wtdaily_020811&p=1.

 

IRS delays contractor tax withholding

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The Internal Revenue Service is pushing off an unpopular requirement that the government withhold a percentage of its payments to most contractors for tax purposes.

The final rule, published in Monday’s (5/9/2011)  Federal Register, delays a mandate that federal, state and local governments with expenditures of more than $100 million withhold 3 percent of payments for products and services worth more than $10,000, including nonconfidential or classified contracts, grants to for-profit companies, and farm and Medicare payments. The requirement, scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, 2012, now will be delayed to apply to payments on new contracts made after Dec. 31, 2012. The rule will affect all contracts starting Dec. 31, 2013.

The requirement, included in the 2005 Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act to ensure that individuals and companies with outstanding tax debts do not receive new payments from the federal government, would closely mirror the withholding system on individual salaries and wages. The government would set aside 3 percent of the gross payments and the information and funds would then be transmitted to the IRS. At the end of the year, the amount withheld would be credited toward taxes owed.

Lawmakers earlier this year proposed repealing the controversial provision, and Obama administration officials in March expressed support for delaying the requirement while agencies prepare to implement the change.

Critics have suggested that the provision is unnecessarily burdensome during an economic downturn, noting that other measures exist to ensure contractor tax compliance.

“This is an 11th-hour quasi-reprieve from a temporary tax increase that would have eliminated jobs and helped only the IRS,” said Phil Bond, president and chief executive officer of TechAmerica, a technology-based trade association. “It is a scheme to force companies to pay taxes in advance and then wait for the IRS to send them a refund a year later. A one-year extension of the withholding and reporting requirements is a significant, positive development but far from a solution.”

Roger Jordan, vice president of government relations at the Professional Services Council, a contractor trade group, on Monday also applauded the delay but called the requirement itself “bad policy.”

“The withholding requirement would significantly reduce companies’ cash flow at a time when the current economic environment is already squeezing their ability to meet operating expenses,” he said. “While it’s appropriate to focus on how to ensure that any tax liabilities government contractors and other organizations owe are properly collected, other regulations have been implemented in recent years that effectively ensure contractors are meeting their tax obligations.”

— by Emily Long – GovExec.com – May 9, 2011 – at http://www.govexec.com/story_page_pf.cfm?articleid=47769&printerfriendlyvers=1

GTPAC director named education vice president for national organization

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At the spring training conference of the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) last week, Chuck Schadl was named Vice President of Education for this national organization.

Schadl is the program director of the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC).   GTPAC is one of 93 procurement technical assistance centers (PTACs) that operate across the country.  PTACs assist businesses in identifying, competing for, and winning government contracts.  APTAC is the trade association that represents and supports PTACs.

As Vice President of Education for APTAC, Schadl is one of six officers of the organization who make up the executive committee.  As VP, he is responsible for overseeing APTAC’s Education Committee as well as the organization’s Professional Review Board.   His appointment became effective on March 24, 2011 when he took the oath of office with other board members.

APTAC’s Education Committee determines the type and content of – and arranges for – the training courses to be presented at national training conferences, including the training courses that fulfill the certification requirements of the Professional Review Board (PRB).  The PRB  is responsible for managing and administering APTAC’s certification program, including developing and maintaining a method of recognizing the professional qualifications of procurement technical assistance specialists, promoting the value of APTAC’s certification and upholding the integrity of the certification process.

“I’ve been active in APTAC ever since I joined GTPAC in 2003,” commented Schadl.  “In my new role, I’m looking forward to making an even more meaningful contribution to the organization and its membership.  In turn, this should translate into better service to the businesses that PTACs serve nationwide.”

‘Missing Middle’ companies to get help with federal contracts

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The U.S. intends to increase competition for contracts by reaching out to “medium-sized” businesses that can’t use incentives reserved forsmaller firms and aren’t large enough to compete against the biggest vendors.

The General Services Administration, the agency that bought $52 billion in goods and services for the federal government last year, plans to focus on the issue in May, officials said.

“There are numerous businesses all over the country that have never seriously considered entering into the government market,” said Chuck Schadl, director of the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center in Atlanta. “Nobody has ever reached out to them before.”

Many medium-sized companies, a difficult-to-define segment GSA officials dubbed the “missing middle,” haven’t bid for government work because of misconceptions, a lack of knowledge about the process or a perception of bureaucratic gridlock, business owners and agency officials said.

Companies with more than $35 million in annual revenue or more than 500 employees typically can’t qualify for government programs aimed at steering federal contracts to small business.

A planned series of workshops is intended to help companies win GSA orders by explaining the benefits of selling to the federal marketplace, subcontracting opportunities and partnering with large vendors, they said.

Procurement Pool

The workshop series begins in ten locations across the country over the year, agency officials said.  Each week-long event will host 100 companies at little or no cost, said Jiyoung Park, the GSA’s associate administrator of small business utilization.

GSA plans to emphasize the size of its procurement pool — $52 billion last year in so-called “schedule” contracts, government-wide acquisition and building leases and management. It will also present case studies on medium-sized companies that successfully maintained federal business, or adapted to changing needs from agencies.

“It’s often hard to predict the demand for products and services given budgetary constraints, given new legislation that may alter missions or eliminate or create programs, or given the confidential nature of work,” Park said.

Medium-sized businesses that are successful in the private sector may also be reluctant to seek out government work because of perceptions of bureaucratic slowdowns and an opaque bidding process, agency and company officials said.

Giving Up

“Most folks from a commercial background throw their arms up and say, ‘let’s forget it, it’s too long of a cycle, it’s too expensive for me to figure this out,’” said Michael Agrillo, executive vice president of Arlington, Virginia-based OnPoint Consulting Inc., a provider of computer network and cybersecurity services to civilian agencies.

Triton Federal Solutions, a McLean, Virginia-based software developer for the Energy Department, said its parent company, Project Performance Corp., accepted a takeover by London-based AEA Technology Group Plc in 2008 because it “graduated” from small business status.

Ivette Granier-Smith, Triton’s president, said the purchase forced her to “find a niche” to keep winning government work.

“As a small business, we did a little bit of everything but when you graduate doing a little bit of everything does not serve you well,” Granier-Smith said. “You have to really have some muscle somewhere.”

Seeking Leverage

Blackstone Technology Group opened its government practice in Washington in 2002. The San Francisco-based company’s federal contracts now account for 65 percent of its business, the result of starting out as a subcontractor, said Jesse O’Gorman, a partner in the company’s Arlington, Virginia office.

Schadl, whose Georgia Tech procurement assistance center works with 2,700 Georgia businesses to obtain federal, state and local government contracts,said it’s a misconception that government work can’t provide a reliable income stream.

“A lot of businesses we’ve seen have never really considered government contract work before, and not necessarily for good reasons,” said. “Their impression is that government pays slow, and that’s not true at all.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Nishad Majmudar in Washington at nmajmudar@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Cary O’Reilly at caryoreilly@bloomberg.net

Published by Bloomberg Government – Mar. 31, 2011 – http://about.bgov.com/

SBA opens its review of small business regulations

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Are you a small business owner frustrated with outdated and often cumbersome regulations from the Small Business Administration? Then SBA wants to hear your suggestions on whether those rules should be streamlined, expanded, or possibly withdrawn altogether.

On Monday, SBA published a notice in the Federal Register asking the public to weigh in on the impact of its regulations and the best way to improve them.

“The primary objectives of this review are to make SBA’s regulatory program more cost-effective and less burdensome on participants in the agency’s programs while continuing to promote economic growth, innovation and job creation,” the notice said. “SBA seeks public input on the design of a plan to use for periodic retrospective review of its regulations and an initial list of the rules to be reviewed under the plan.”

The proposal comes on the heels of President Obama’s January executive order calling for a governmentwide review of all federal regulations. The order said inefficient, out-of-date and burdensome regulations could be repealed if they were stifling private sector job growth.

The order instructs agencies to develop a plan for reviewing their regulations by mid-May. The plan, along with any supporting data, would then be made public, Obama wrote.

While the SBA notice did not cite specific regulations, it did say the retrospective review would focus on small business investment companies, surety bond guarantee, business loans, disaster loans, government contracting and Historically Underutilized Business Zones.

SBA recently concluded an exhaustive review of its 8(a) Business Development Program and now is examining size regulations. Neither will be subject to the new review.

The agency wants the public to comment not only on specific regulations, but also on how it should devise its preliminary plan “with a defined method and schedule for identifying certain significant rules that may be obsolete, unnecessary, unjustified, excessively burdensome, or counterproductive.” Comments also should address how SBA can best evaluate and analyze its regulations and obtain accurate and objective cost data.

Commenters should consider the economic burden the regulation imposes on small business entities and whether the rule is duplicative or overlapping; paperwork could be reduced by allowing electronic submissions; the regulation has been discredited by new scientific information; and the issue could be better handled by trade organizations without federal involvement.

“Comments should focus on regulations that have demonstrated deficiencies,” the notice said. “Comments that rehash debates over recently issued rules will be less useful. The public should focus on rule changes that will achieve a broad public impact, rather than an individual, personal, or corporate benefit.”

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, encouraged the public to participate in the review.

“Excessive regulations are suffocating the entrepreneurial spirit of America’s almost 30 million small businesses and, regrettably, small firms with fewer than 20 employees bear a disproportionate burden of complying with these rules,” Snowe said in a statement. “To spur job creation and economic growth, it is incumbent upon every level of government to simultaneously pursue sound incentives and eliminate the laws and policies already on the books that are proven impediments to these objectives.”

Earlier this month, Snowe and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., introduced the Small Business Regulatory Freedom Act, which would require agencies to calculate the direct and indirect economic impact of federal regulations. Small business review panels would be installed at all agencies and small businesses also would be allowed to challenge proposed regulations in court.

Comments for the SBA notice must be submitted by April 13. Comments can be submitted electronically at regulations.gov, or mailed to the SBA Office of the General Counsel, 409 Third Street SW., Washington, D.C., 20416.

The review plan, along with an initial list of regulations that will be evaluated, is expected to be complete by late May or early June and will be available on SBA’s Open Government Web page.

—  by Robert Brodsky – GovExec.com -March 15, 2011

“Jobs Act Tour” coming to Atlanta on Mar. 30

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On Wednesday, March 30, 2011, Georgia businesses will have a chance to meet with leaders from the Small Business Administration (SBA), give input on new regulations, and learn how you can take advantage of new tools coming out of the Small Business Jobs Act (click here for fact sheet).

At this event you can learn more about:

This event will be held at the Loudermilk Center, 40 Courtland Street, NE, Atlanta, GA 30303, starting at 9:30 am.

Space is limited.  To register, go to: http://events.sba.gov/eventmanagement/eventlisting.aspx?state=GA.

Breakout sessions will be held on six topics, including:

1. Small Business Jobs Act Provisions Affecting Small Business Participation in Government Contracting

  • SBA’s Office of Government Contracting and Business Development will take general comments on key contracting provisions, including:
    • multiple-award contract set-asides
    • contract bundling accountability
    • consolidation of contracts requirements
    • subcontracting; plan improvements, misrepresentations, and timeliness of payment
    • mentor-protégé programs for women-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, and HUBZone businesses
    • presumption of loss to the federal government and willful misrepresentation of size and status by business owners
    • annual certification of size requirement

2. Opportunities in Accessing Capital

  • SBA’s Office of Capital Access will discuss opportunities to accessing capital, and how SBA loan programs (including new Jobs Act tools) can help.

3. New SBA Loan Programs

4. Investing in Counseling and Training Services to Support the Growth of Small Businesses

5. Expanding Exporting Opportunities for Small Businesses

  • SBA’s Office of International Trade will discuss new exporting tools such as increased loan sizes, the Export Express program, and state-level STEP grants made possible by the Jobs Act as well as new efforts under the National Export Initiative to double exports over the next five years.

6. Lender Roundtable (for Prospective and Current SBA Lenders)

  • SBA’s Office of Capital Access will discuss new efforts to simplify and streamline loan programs and requirements, while also enhancing customer service in areas such as lending policy, processing, and oversight operations.

Contractors face more pain from government shutdown

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If the government shuts down, the closings in the mid-1990s are not good indicators of what’s to come for government contractors.

Contractors would get hit harder today if agencies closed their doors than they were 15 years ago, said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel for the Professional Services Council, an industry group.

Government spending on contracts has increased radically compared to the last shutdown, which stretched from Dec. 16, 1995, to Jan. 6, 1996.

And the government buys more services than products today. Contracting for services increased by 17 percent per year between 2000 and 2008, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

As a result, a shutdown would tear into service contractors’ pocketbooks. Services aren’t paid for when the contract is signed, Chvotkin said. They can be paid a number of different ways, from quarterly payments for their work to jobs done per day. Product sellers won’t be hit in the same way. They will face changes in when and where they would make their deliveries, but the government likely will have already paid the companies for products.

1995 is no guidepost for what could come very quickly, he said. There have even been major reorganizations in 15 years, including the addition of the Homeland Security Department that is made up of a conglomeration of numerous agencies.

“A lot is the same — but significantly different,” he said.

The Professional Services Council is hosting a conference on dealing with a possible shutdown. Chvotkin and two Clinton administration officials who served in the White House during the 1995 shutdowns will take part in a discussion Feb. 23 about the effect a government shutdown could have on the government contractor community.

“It’s a program we wish we didn’t have to have and give information that no one really needs,” he said. But “no one is going to be immune from the impact.”

 — by Matthew Weigelt – Federal Computer Week – Feb. 22, 2011

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