As many in federal contracting know, the SBA had its certification portal (certify.sba.gov) closed for upgrades for a few months. The SBA is replacing it with a new portal called MySBA Certifications which as of the writing of this blog post is now live. While it hasn’t been widely published, SBA released screenshots of this new portal, which indicate SBA is making some large changes to applications, especially for applications to the 8(a) Program. We here at SmallGovCon think it is important for Federal Contractors to be aware of these changes before utilizing this new portal.
As we blogged about in July of this year, SBA announced it was closing its certify website for upgrades. Initially this website closure was planned to last from August through early September. As of the publishing of this blog post, the new portal seems to have just been opened for use and certify.sba.gov will be used “to manage any active certifications until [SBA] share information about a future MySBA Certifications’ continuing eligibility module.”
Prior to MySBA Certifications going live, the certify website stated: “MySBA Certifications is a new, single application for all SBA federal contracting certifications that will open to the public in October.” That announcement at the top of the page had a link to an “updates” page which has an FAQ and fact sheet. However, that is not the limit of the information out there from SBA regarding the new “MySBA Certifications” website. If contractors go to https://certification.sba.gov/, there are more resources, and even a preview of the new website, that quietly presents some changes to certification applications, especially the 8(a) Program’s application. That portal/website preview is what we believe contractors need to be aware (and wary) about.
At https://certification.sba.gov/ there is an option to choose “prepare for application,” which then leads you to a page which has a link to choose “Application Preview.” If you were to select that, you are then greeted with a substantial slide deck that previews the SBA’s MySBA Certifications application portal. This portal may provide some surprises to contractors.
Initially, the SBA is stating the portal will ask some quick ownership percentage questions and eligibility questions which results in a “Should I Apply” result. That will then suggest which programs a contactor may be eligible for. Contractors then claim their business by having the portal crosswalk with SAM.gov, answer specific questions dialing down on ownership and entity structure. After that, contractors mark what programs they would like to apply for. This all appears to be efficient and helpful for contractors. These fields appear to be drop downs, simple yes or no questions, etc. This makes sense for initial items, but where the potential issues arise, are in the specifics of certifications and entity or individual information that needs more nuance or deeper explanation. This is especially true with the 8(a) Program’s application.
Upon review, SBA is placing text boxes for contractors to fill in information, which are character limited (looks like the default is 1000 characters not words). This includes things as fact specific as control and 8(a) Social Disadvantage. SBA has character limited text boxes for explaining connections to other businesses, financial support, control, familial involvement, and possibly most novel to those who are used to dealing with the 8(a) Program, the elements of the social disadvantage narrative itself.
As you likely recall, there have been lots of changes to the 8(a) social disadvantage narrative over the past year since the Ultima decision (check out our 8(a) Toolkit for our blogs tracking the changes to 8(a) Program). One of these changes to the 8(a) Program application process was SBA seeking only two examples of discrimination in a specific “who, what, when, why, how” type format. This trimmed down on lengthy narratives, likely due to the urgent nature of program changes in the wake of Ultima. As anyone who has worked with 8(a) contractors or talked with someone who has faced discrimination knows, it can be difficult to boil down such complex, emotionally intense events throughout a life into just two instances. Now, SBA appears to be cutting back even more.
SBA takes its new social disadvantage format and tries to force it into a portal form. The SBA seemingly will limit an explanation of an emotional and complex discrimination occurrence (or as SBA says “What happened”) into a 1000 character box. SBA also does this for “How did this situation affect opportunities to start or expand your business?” (For context, on average, the paragraphs in this very blog post are around 600 to 700 characters). SBA will expect contractors to distill an occurrence in a lifetime of discrimination into about a paragraph or two. SBA likely still expects specifics on the occurrence, but now also wants those specifics to not exceed a certain character limit.
SBA also is utilizing a drop down box for contractors to select “Which of the following contributed to the discrimination in the situation?” Then for the following questions, it appears SBA is suggesting a one line answer as they are not full text boxes:
- “When did it happen?”
- “Who contributed to the discrimination?”
- “Where did it happen?”
- “Please provide a brief explanation for how the identified characteristic(s) contributed to the discrimination or mistreatment?”
While some of these questions do make sense to have short answers, a “brief explanation for how the identified characteristic(s) contributed to the discrimination or mistreatment” is likely not something that can be fit into one sentence or line. There does not appear to be a document upload option for this page. At the end of the SBA’s slide deck it does appear there is an overall “document upload” stage of the application, but it seems to not list an option for a social disadvantage narrative. The document upload in the slide deck is focused on business documentation, tax documentation, and third party certification (for EDWOSB or WOSB applications).
Looking at the website, it doesn’t look like SBA has a spot for receiving feedback or comments on its portal, despite it presenting even more changes to the 8(a) Program’s certification processes. While it is admirable and a good idea to try and be efficient in SBA applications, limiting characters in response to nuanced fact specific personal experiences will likely result in issues for contractors as well as SBA. Logically this approach will probably lead to one of two options: (1) Far less application approvals; or (2) more approvals of applications with less review of the social disadvantage felt by the contractor.
The discrimination and disadvantages SBA’s programs are trying to address don’t fit into a neat box with character limits. Presumably, this proposed portal format will result in contractors being unable to fully articulate the discrimination felt, leading to contractors who have been socially disadvantaged, being rejected from the 8(a) Program simply because they couldn’t fit their life experience and occurrence into a specified character limit. As a result of that, it can be assumed that contractors will re-apply to the program after the rejection or simply not reapply despite possibly being socially disadvantaged. This could lead to an overall decline in contractors admitted to the 8(a) Program.
Or, the inverse will occur. Due to the limited nature of the new portal’s application, a more detailed review will not result, and this social disadvantage factor will function more as a “check the box” in which contractors simply need to fill out the fields, and that will be enough. There is not an indication one way or the other, except that historically, SBA has taken review of social disadvantage quite seriously. Regardless, contractors looking into certification with SBA, especially the 8(a) Program, need to be aware that this new portal will feel much different than any previous applications and basically gets rid of the social disadvantage narrative in exchange for a social disadvantage form. Time will tell what kind of effect it will have on SBA socioeconomic program participation.
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