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. Today, we released our annual Small Business Procurement Scorecards, which track and assess each agency’s yearly and individually negotiated small business prime and subcontracting performance and are given grades ranging from A+ to F.
We are very pleased to announce 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.
It has been a goal of my office to increase support to the small business contracting community, namely, the agency procurement personnel who are responsible for actually making the contract awards to small businesses and their activities. This shared result between SBA and its colleague agencies and partners - is evidence of our commitment to ensuring that small businesses are adequately supported and represented throughout government and that government gets long term quality solutions and innovation, at competitive pricing.
My office works in cooperation with a federal government network of small business professionals and colleagues across government to achieve this goal. Using SBA’s own Procurement Center Representatives , and Commercial Market Representatives ; along with each agency’s own Office of Small Disadvantaged Business Utilization or Office of Small Business Programs and contracting officers – the government strives each year to reach the 23% goal.
Last month, the SBA celebrated National Small Business Week and recognized small businesses across the nation with events held in Washington, D.C., Jacksonville, Fla., Savannah, Georgia, Columbia, South Carolina and Raleigh, North Carolina. The following small business contracting champions were recognized in DC:
- Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year: Chris Weil, Weil Construction Inc., of Albuquerque, N.M. a construction company and small disadvantaged business certified in SBA’s 8(a) and HUBZone programs. The company specializes in new construction, renovations, remodels, tenant improvements, facility repairs and systems upgrades.
- Small Business Subcontractor of the Year: Evans Capacitor Company of East Providence, R.I. The company delivers high power density capacitors to over 100 customers annually, including every major U.S. defense contractor.
- 8(a) Graduate Firm of the Year: Carlos Del Toro, a 27-year Navy veteran and White House Fellow, of SBG Technology Solutions Inc. provides IT solutions, program management services, enterprise engineering, cyber security services, software development, call center technology and services and training to federal and commercial clients nationwide. It has 180 employees and has generated more than $30 million in revenues in 2016 alone. Del Toro credits the 8(a) Business Development program with not only refining SBG’s business practices—a result critical to the firm’s initial growth—but also positioning it for continued success after graduation from the program. Since graduating from the program, SBG won a highly competitive contract valued at more than $50 million to provide engineering services to the U.S. Navy.
- Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Greeley, Colorado received the Dwight D. Eisenhower Award for Excellence, which recognizes large prime contractors that have excelled in utilization of small businesses as suppliers and subcontractors.
The outstanding performance by the many departments and agencies across government helped us to achieve the 23 % small business goal, and exceed it for small disadvantaged businesses and service disabled veteran owned small businesses while also creating an environment for contracting champions like our award winners to flourish. SBA is deeply gratified to work with our partners – and we sincerely appreciate their efforts in helping to achieve the 23% goal.