Number of Small Businesses Awarded Federal Government Contracts Has Dropped 12.7% in Four Years

The number of small businesses receiving government contracts dropped yet again in Fiscal Year 2020–and the four-year decline is 12.7%.

In its FY 2020 goaling scorecard, the SBA reported that 45,661 distinct small businesses received contracts in the top 100 NAICS codes. The previous fiscal year, 46,661 distinct small businesses received contracts. Four years ago, when SBA first started including this statistic in its annual reports, the number stood at 51,866. Clearly, the numbers are going in the wrong direction.

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SBA Issues 2020 Small Business Scorecard, Small Business Contracting Over $145 Billion!

The SBA released its annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard for fiscal year 2020 of how federal agencies are doing in meeting their small business goals. The SBA, in announcing the Scorecard, highlighted that small businesses received $145.7 billion in federal contracts , a $13 billion increase from the previous fiscal year. But looking beyond the headlines, not all of the trends are positive for small businesses. Let’s take a look at the numbers.

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GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service Over-Reported Small Business Contracts by $89 Million

Every year, when the SBA releases its annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard, I hear from a few folks who mistrust the data. “I think small business awards are being over-reported,” is a pretty common theme for Scorecard skeptics.

A new GSA Office of Inspector General report is a reminder that it’s not paranoia if people are really out to get you. According to the GSA OIG, the GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service over-reported small business contracts by a whopping $89 million in just two fiscal years.

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DoD Small Business Contracts Have Dropped 70% Since FY 2011, Acquisition Reform Panel Says

The number of DoD small business contract actions has dropped almost 70 percent since Fiscal Year 2011, even as the total number of small business dollars increased significantly.  This is one of the important new findings from an acquisition reform panel’s initial report.

The Advisory Panel on Streamlining and Codifying Acquisition Regulations–better known as the Section 809 Panel–recently released the first in an anticipated three-volume series of reports on ways to potentially reform and improve DoD acquisitions.  The report, which clocks in at a whopping 642 pages, includes a detailed section on DoD small business acquisitions–and suggests that DoD’s focus on achieving dollar-based small business goals has obscured the fact that far fewer small businesses have been awarded DoD contracts in recent years.

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Government Misses HUBZone, WOSB Goals–But Gets “A” Grade Anyway

The government missed its Fiscal Year 2016 HUBZone goal by a country mile, and didn’t hit the 5% WOSB goal, either.  But according to the SBA, the government deserves an “A” for its FY 2016 small business achievements.

That’s some rather generous scoring, wouldn’t you say?

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SmallGovCon Week In Review: April 25-29, 2016

As a North Dakota native, I was excited to see a NDSU graduate picked second overall in last night’s NFL draft.  With the draft complete, my focus is back to government contracts news and notes from around the country.

In this week’s SmallGovCon Week In Review, we take a look at how the DoD is working on a long process of acquisition improvement, the 2015 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard has been released, a proposed amendment looks to help small business and much more.

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SmallGovCon Week In Review: July 13 – 17, 2015

After doubling up the Week In Review last Friday, we are back to our regular one-per-week format. Today, SmallGovCon Week In Review features stories about the GAO’s hard-hitting report on the Buy Indian program, a lengthy prison sentence for bribery of a VA official, the beginning of the fourth quarter “spending season,” and much more.

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