The SBA has released its 2011 Small Business Procurement Scorecard, and the news ain’t good. The scorecard indicates that government-wide, just 21.65% of prime contract dollars went to small businesses. The result falls well short of the government-wide 23% goal, and also represents a significant backslide from last year, in which small businesses were awarded 22.66% of contract dollars.
The SBA gives the government a “B” for its overall efforts, but I come from a family of educators, and know that a “B” is not deserved if a student is not making adequate progress. With government-wide small business prime contract spending dipping by more than a full percentage point in the last year, the government is in for some well-deserved criticism.