Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

GDOT audit finds flaws in disadvantaged business certification process

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An audit completed amid concerns about airport contracts found flaws in the Georgia Department of Transportation’s process to certify businesses with “disadvantaged” status for government contracts. The internal audit discovered calculation errors in more than two-thirds of the sampling of applications it reviewed.

The findings of the audit raise questions about the disadvantaged business certification process GDOT had been using, but it’s not clear how many of the applicants reviewed went on to win contracts.

The “disadvantaged business enterprise” certifications give firms special consideration, since agencies set goals to award a certain percentage of contracts to disadvantaged firms.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.ajc.com/news/business/gdot-audit-finds-flaws-in-disadvantaged-business-c/nTHtQ/.

More oversight needed to ensure intended contracts go to disadvantaged firms

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The government has been aggressive in pressing recipients of federal funds to step up their oversight of Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) programs. DBEs, broadly speaking, are small businesses that are majority-owned by women, minorities or certain military veterans. Many federal contracts require participation by DBEs.

Federal regulations also oblige grant recipients to monitor contractors’ compliance with DBE requirements, including that a DBE to whom work is contractually committed is performing a “commercially useful function” — that is, doing the contracted work with its own personnel and resources.

But mounting examples of wrongdoing in DBE programs have called into question the effectiveness of recipients’ oversight.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20121014/ADOP06/310140003/More-oversight-needed-ensure-intended-contracts-go-disadvantaged-firms?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CAdvice%20&%20Opinion.

Georgia Dept. of Transportation to host public DBE comment & consultation meeting June 15th

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The Georgia Department of Transportation will host a Public Comment/Consultation meeting in Atlanta next week to discuss its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Goal.

The meeting will be held from 10 a.m. until Noon, Friday, June 15, at the Department’s General Office at 600 West Peachtree Street, NW.

The purpose of this public consultation meeting is to seek information concerning the availability of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged businesses, the effects of discrimination on opportunities for DBE’s, and the Department’s efforts to establish a level playing field for the participation of DBE’s in Department contracts and projects.

Interested persons are encouraged to attend or submit written comments to DBEgoal@dot.ga.gov no later than close of business on July 16, 2012.

For additional information, please contact the Georgia DOT Office of Equal Opportunity at 404-631-1972.

USAID pushes for more competition, less onerous regulations

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The U.S. Agency for International Development is seeking to increase competition for its contracts and make its programs more accessible to small and disadvantaged businesses as part of a larger agency-wide reform effort.

Concerned that a reduction in contracting staff has led to an increased reliance on a fairly small group of contractors and nongovernmental organizations, USAID has made changes to its procurement program a key part of its reform.

In its plan for change, the agency says it is “falling short” in accessing the full range of talent in both U.S. businesses and organizations and those in developing countries.

USAID has started by promoting more competition within its programs, particularly focusing on setting aside more awards for small and disadvantaged businesses.

The agency has established a review board that looks at ways to make large contracts more accessible to small businesses, such as by splitting them into smaller pieces, said Aman S. Djahanbani, USAID’s chief acquisition officer.

“Broadening our partner base … just makes good business sense, and it furthers sustainable development,” Djahanbani said.

At the same time, the agency is trying to work with more of the organizations and companies that are local to a given country. Littleton Tazewell, senior adviser to USAID’s general counsel for implementation and procurement reform, said the agency often relies on intermediaries — such as U.S.-based contractors or international nongovernmental organizations — to work with local bodies.

“The idea here is to increase our direct engagement with local organizations,” said Tazewell, who said a deeper understanding of local
organizations will help USAID craft better solicitations.

The agency also is seeking to make its regulations and rules less burdensome to encourage more companies and organizations to compete for contracts and grants.

USAID acknowledged that some larger contractors or NGOs may see reduced work as a result of its procurement reform moves.

“Our partners need to realize that there is more competition,” said Djahanbani. “However, they definitely have a role to play — maybe a different role.”

For instance, he said, in some cases a local organization could serve as the prime contractor while an international or U.S.-based organization could function as a subcontractor.

Tazewell said USAID has engaged the companies and organizations it frequently uses as it reforms in an effort to identify their particular problems.

Still, USAID is only about 18 months into what it expects to be a five-year process, Tazewell said.

“We’re going to trip and make some mistakes along the way, but our expectation is at the end of that five-year process we’ll be a much better organization,” he said. “We will have a structure [and a] regulatory framework that allows for a broadened partner base that’s both local- and small business-oriented.”

— by Marjorie Censer – The Washington Post – published December 25, 2011 at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/usaid-pushes-for-more-competition-less-onerous-regulations/2011/11/28/gIQA1chUHP_story.html.

Procurement chief defends Obama’s commitment to small business

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A proposed rule to curb agencies’ little used capacity to offer higher payments to needier contractors “will have no impact on the government’s ability or commitment to drive contracting opportunities for small disadvantaged businesses,” Dan Gordon, administrator of the White House Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said Friday.

In a blog post for the Office of Management and Budget, Gordon sought to reassure some in the minority business community that a proposed regulation issued in September by the Small Business Administration is a routine “housekeeping” tool designed to catch the law up with a 2008 court ruling that declared such price premiums unconstitutional.

“The proposed rule in no way changes the fundamental policies, practices or programs that agencies have been using in recent years to achieve strong SDB
participation in the federal marketplace, including the goal of awarding 5 percent of federal procurement dollars to SDBs,” Gordon wrote.

The affected agencies — the Defense Department, NASA and the U.S. Coast Guard — have not used price premiums to attract disadvantaged small contractors in years, Gordon noted. But the administration has “been working with the Minority Business Development Agency to strengthen the bond between contracting, small business and program offices at every agency,” Gordon wrote. “Since the beginning of [fiscal] 2009, agencies have awarded more than $85 billion in contracts to SDBs, exceeding the goal of awarding at least 5 percent of contract dollars to SDBs.” In fiscal 2010, he added, contract awards to small disadvantaged businesses accounted for 7.95 percent of all eligible contract dollars, “well above the goal.”

Gordon’s clarification came as the Obama administration readied a new set of executive actions designed to spur job creation in large and small businesses
while Congress debates the president’s larger proposed jobs package.

The perception among some that ending premium payments to disadvantaged businesses was a pullback in the administration’s commitment was rejected by Molly Brogan, vice president of public affairs for the National Small Business Association. “At the end of the day, small businesses just want a level playing field,” she told Government Executive. “Ensuring that small businesses — including SDB businesses — have a fair opportunity to compete for federal
dollars ought to be the No. 1 goal. We don’t believe this new rule will change [that] in any way.”

Raul Espinosa, founder of a Jacksonville, Fla. – based university nonprofit called the Fairness in Procurement Alliance, which has been pressing for stronger rules on accelerating payments to small disadvantaged businesses, said he was grateful for the administration’s overall effort, but worries it might be “lip service.” Changes “will mean nothing unless they’re codified into the federal acquisition regulation and referred to in actual contracts,” he
said.

—  by Charles S. Clark – Government Executive – October 24, 2011 – http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=49130&dcn=e_tma

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