WASHINGTON - On June 30, new U.S.
Small Business Administration regulations took effect that require
companies with federal contracts to recertify their size status
as "small
businesses." These actions will increase opportunities for
more small
businesses to receive contracts from the federal government.
"SBA is making tremendous progress improving
federal contracting
opportunities for small businesses," agency Administrator
Steven Preston
said. "As part of those reforms, we are now implementing
the
recertification rule -- announced last November -- to ensure federal
rules
properly classify small business contracts."
Recertification is necessary because federal
agencies have been able to
count all contracts originally awarded to small businesses as
small
business contracts for up to 20 years, even if those companies
were
acquired by large corporations.
Starting June 30, any small business that merges
or is acquired must
immediately "recertify" its size. If the company is
no longer small, the
contract continues, but the federal government can no longer count
it as a
"small" contract. Federal agencies will also immediately
modify all
existing long-term (over five years) contracts to require small
businesses
to recertify their size status for acquisitions, mergers and novation
requests and to recertify their size status prior to an option
being
exercised. All existing contracts of less than five years will
recertify
when their first option is exercised. The vast majority of these
contracts
have one-year options.
Under these rules, most large businesses credited
with small contracts
will no longer be counted as small, effective June 30. Nearly
all the
remaining large businesses will be scrubbed from the database
within a
year. As a result, federal agencies will need to increase efforts
to
identify and contract with new small businesses to meet their
small
business contracting goals -- 23 percent as directed by Congress.
Because more than five million actions are recorded in the federal
government's contracting database each year, as a practical measure
contracting officers are being allowed to review short-term contracts
as
they are renewed annually.
OTHER STEPS
Also this summer, SBA will launch its Quick Market
Search tool, an enhancement to the Dynamic Small Business Search
database, part of the Central Contractor Registration database,
which is a component of the government-wide Integrated Acquisition
Environment. The Quick Market Search tool will allow contracting
officers to identify vendor pools under each of the socioeconomic
preference programs, including women-owned small business, 8(a),
small disadvantaged business, HUBZone (historically underutilized
businesses), and service-disabled veteran-owned small business.
SBA will also transfer responsibility for front-line
small business
procurement counseling and training from procurement center representatives
(PCRs) to its district offices and resource partners, significantly
expanding national coverage.
In addition, this summer SBA will work on agreements
across the federal
agencies to have them provide increased contracting opportunities
under the
socioeconomic procurement preference programs in which they have
not met
their contracting goals.
These steps will allow agency PCRs to focus on
helping agencies provide
genuine opportunities for more small firms to enter and develop
in the
federal marketplace, and in meeting contracting goals. SBA will
train its
field staff in these new responsibilities over three weeks in
August.
The recertification regulation is available at
The Federal Register's
Web site at:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.go
v/2 006/pdf/E6-19253.pdf.
For additional information on the new upgrades to the DSBS database,
visit the SBA's Web site at http://www.sba.gov/size,
and click on "What's New?"
