NAGC Supports SBA Action On Identifying Small Business Contractors

Washington, D.C. -- The National Association of Government Contractors (NAGC) supports the Small Business Administration’s efforts to track the status of corporations taking advantage of small business incentives. Making corrections in the existing database coupled with ongoing checks are a good way to insure contracts are being awarded fairly.

"Any time a corporation uses a small business incentive, there is a small business out there that is losing out," said J.R. Claeys, President of NAGC. "It is important that the procurement process be transparent and fair to all businesses."

The SBA has begun to take action to insure that designated contracts are in fact being awarded to small businesses. The SBA began sending letters last week to as many as 1,000 contractors asking them to disclose by Sept. 30 any small-business contracts they or their subsidiaries hold.

The move is an effort to insure that federal agencies no longer count contracts held by large corporations toward their goals of awarding 23% of their contract dollars to small businesses.

With this updated information from the large contractors, along with the updated rules that went into effect June 30 that require on-going checks on the size of small-business contractors, the SBA is on track to remove large firms from the small-business contractor rolls.

Cleaning up the government's contractor database can be done within a year, according to the Small Business Administration.

"Based on the results we've seen and the collaboration with other agencies, we feel that it's very realistic," said Arthur Collins, director of government contracting at the SBA.

The letters also asked to identify any short-term contracts they have with renewal options greater than one year and to voluntarily alert the government that the contracts are held by companies "other than small."

The targeted contractors in question have been asked to alert the federal contracting officers they deal with as well as the SBA when they make the changes, although there are no real penalties for those that do not.

While it is heartening to see the SBA taking initiative on identifying which contracts are being awarded rightly to small businesses the rules still lack teeth and any type of recourse for corporations who falsely identify themselves.

About NAGC: The National Association of Government Contractors (NAGC) is the home of America's procurement professionals. Thousands of business owners and executives working with government agencies, universities and private corporations trust NAGC as a professional resource for their procurement needs.