![]() |
Home | En Español | Contact Us | A to Z |
![]() |
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
Small Businesses Win Record Share of Contracts[The following article, written by David Phinney, appeared the April 5, 2004 issue of Federal Times.]Small
businesses won a greater share of federal contracts last year than
ever before, the Small Business Administration announced. Drawing
upon data compiled by the Federal Procurement Data Center, SBA found
that the government awarded more than a quarter of its prime contracting
dollars to small businesses for the first time ever. The
data for fiscal 2003 indicates that small businesses won $62.7 billion
in prime contracts, representing 25.4 percent of all government
prime-contract-dollars. That is an increase of $9.7 billion over
2002, or 18.3 percent. Every
category of small business tracked by SBA showed impressive gains,
SBA found. Small disadvantaged businesses received $18.2 billion
in contracts, a $2.3 billion increase over 2002. Likewise, participants
in the 8(a) business development program received nearly $4 billion
more than in 2002, for a total of $9.6 billion in 2003. Dollars
to women-owned small businesses increased by $1.1 billion, to $7.9
billion. Service-disabled veterans also saw an impressive jump in
the value of contracts awarded, receiving $510 million in 2003 as
opposed to $298 million the year before. The
statutory goal for small-business contracting is 23 percent, said
SBA Administrator Hector Barreto. "We not only exceeded those
standards, but we set an all-time record, awarding a higher percentage
of federal contracting dollars to America's small businesses than
ever before." The
SBA estimates that the $62.7 billion in prime contracts awarded
to small businesses created or retained 469,632 jobs. The
Bush administration's former administrator for procurement policy,
Angela Styles, said she was amazed by the new numbers. "A
lot of work and a personal commitment by the president brought these
numbers," said Styles, who resigned in September. "The
only way they will remain this high is if the president and staff
continue to focus on small-business issues." Sen.
Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Small Business
and Entrepreneurship Committee, greeted the news with some reservation.
While the numbers indicate that the government is making progress,
she said more could be done. "I
want to help (SBA) build on this progress," she said. "Obstacles
still remain to hinder small firms from realizing greater business
opportunities in both prime contracting and subcontracting areas." Ronald
Newlan, chairman of the HubZone Contractors National Council, agreed,
His organization represents small businesses working in areas with
high levels of poverty. "On
a micro-level sense, we need more energy, more commitment,"
he said. "By my calculations we did just under 1 percent last year of the HubZone 3 percent goal requirement," Newlan said. "That's one-third below and acceptable level, and we need to get the jobs where wages are low and unemployment high." DAVID PHINNEY MORE BUSINESS FOR SMALL FIRMS Most Cabinet departments increased their contracting with small businesses in 2003:
SOURCE:
Federal Procurement Data Center
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
Content Archived: April 15, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||