The Role of the Small Business Administration (SBA)
SBA's responsibility under the Small Business Act 15(g)(1) is to
ensure that the Government-wide goal for participation of small
business concerns be established at not less than the statutory
levels annually and to report the agencies' achievements relative
to the goals of the President.
Negotiating & Establishing Goals
To fulfill this responsibility, SBA negotiates goals with the Federal
agencies to establish individual agency goals such that in
the aggregate, the Government-wide goals are established.
In addition to the statutory goals, as a matter of policy, SBA also
negotiates a small business subcontracting goal based on the recent
achievement levels and a HUBZone (HZ) subcontracting goal equivalent
to the required prime HZ goal and recommends that the agencies'
SDB goal be comprised of half 8(a) awards and half non-8(a) awards.
Before the beginning of the fiscal year, agencies submit proposed
goals to SBA. SBA's Office of Government Contracting determines
if these individual agency goals, in the aggregate, meet or exceed
the government-wide statutorily mandated goals in each small business
category. When that is achieved, SBA notifies the agencies of the
final goals.
Monitoring Achievements Toward Goals
The SBA uses the procurement data in the Federal Procurement Data
System (FPDS) to monitor agencies' achievements against goals. The
FPDS is the official Federal procurement data source. Agencies report
each award over $25,000 separately with details about that award
such as; industry, place of performance, type of contractor, if
the contractor meets SBA's size standards, and amount. Awards under
$25,000 are also reported, but in summary form that does not include
specific details about each small purchase. The agencies' prime
contractors, who win awards over $500,000 ($1 million if construction)
also report on their subcontracting to small business by goal category.
SBA monitors the agencies' performance throughout the year using
the FPDS data and compares the agencies' achievements with its goals.
Reporting Achievements and Goals
When the mid-year data are available, SBA reports to each major
Federal procurement agency on their progress towards goals for that
fiscal year. Annually, SBA prepares a report for the President government-wide
and by agency. That report is also published in the Office of Advocacy's
State of Small Business. Achievements and goals are posted
on SBA's web site at
http://www.sba.gov/gc/goals
More Information
SBA policies and procedures for implementing the statutory small business
goals are presented in the Goaling Guidelines. The Guidelines in effect in
prior fiscal years are available under that year's web site where the goals
and achievements are posted. The current Guidelines are posted on
http://www.sba.gov/gc/goals
under the Methodology for Establishing Goals button.
The website to contact Government Contracting Goaling Office is
goaling@sba.gov.
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