U.S. Small Business Administration
Each year the federal government purchases from private firms billions of dollars in goods and services, that range from paperclips to complex space vehicles. It is the policy of the United States, as stated in the Small Business Act, that all small businesses have the maximum practicable opportunity to participate in providing goods and services to the government.
To foster an equitable federal procurement policy, government-wide small business goals are established for federal agencies as percentages of annual expenditures. Each agency submits its proposed goals to the SBA which ensures that the aggregate government-wide statutory goals are met. Currently, the statutory small business goal is 23 percent. In addition, the statutory goal is 5 percent for both women-owned small businesses and small disadvantaged businesses. The HUBZone statutory goal is 1.0 percent in fiscal year (FY) 1999, 1.5 percent in FY2000, 2 percent in FY2001, 2.5 percent in FY2002 and 3 percent in FY2003. For more details on the statutory requirements for each goaling category, please see the goaling guidance (PDF). The SBA approves the final goals set by each federal agency and monitors the agency's actual performance against the established goals. In accordance with OFPP policy letter 99-1, Federal agencies shall submit their goals before the beginning of each fiscal year. Public Law 93-400 requires the Office of Management and Budget, through its OFPP, to establish a system for collecting, developing and disseminating procurement data, which takes into account the needs of Congress, the Executive Branch and the public sector. That system is the Federal Procurement Data System. A new section has been added to the FPDS Federal Procurement Report entitled, "Report on Annual Procurement Preference Goaling Achievements." All goaling accomplishments will be publicly reported through this document. Accordingly, only data reported to the FPDS on SF 279 and SF 281 may be included in a federal agency’s baseline for reporting purposes. In order for SBA to track the goals and actual achievements, Federal agencies each year provide the SBA with estimates of the total dollar amount of all prime contracts to be awarded that fiscal year and estimates of the total dollar amount of all subcontracts to be awarded by the agency's reporting prime contractors. Starting with fiscal year 1998, all goaling achievements were reported throughFPDS. The goals are expressed both as a dollar amount and as a percentage of the total amount to be awarded for each of the categories. At the end of each fiscal year, the head of each agency is required to review its FPDS report and, if required, submit the appropriate justification to SBA for failure to meet specific goals with a plan to achieve the goals in the succeeding fiscal year.
goaling@sba.gov |