Federal Contracting “Scorecard” for FY2010 Shows Strong Progress

Today we released the federal government’s “Scorecard” on small business contracting for Fiscal Year 2010.  As you might know, contracting is one of our 3 Cs of the SBA.  It’s important because revenue from federal contracts and subcontracts helps small firms grow their business and create jobs.

In FY2010, nearly $100 billion in contracts went to small businesses.  That’s 22.7% of all federal contracting dollars, just shy of the government’s goal of 23%.  Combined with last year’s improvements this reflects the biggest two-year increase in history.

Overall, the federal government got a B.  We gave 13 As, 5 Bs, 4 Cs and 2 Ds to the agencies. 

In addition to almost reaching the overall goal, the government showed strong improvement in four out of five Prime Contracting categories.  For example, the percentage of contracts going to small women-owned firms rose from 3.7% in 2009 to 4% in 2010, an increase of over $1 billion.  And we expect to build on that progress with the new women-owned small-business contracting program that is being rolled out right now.

This new Scorecard reflects an Administration-wide commitment to two principles:collaboration and transparency.

• First, never before has the White House itself taken such a direct leadership role on this issue.  Every quarter, we’ve met with President Obama’s Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and top leaders from each agency to report on the progress they’re making.  We also share best practices and discuss new tools that are coming out of the Small Business Jobs Act and the Interagency Task Force on Federal Contracting Opportunities for Small Business.

• Second, the new scorecard data is the most accurate to date.  Federal agencies are taking more seriously than ever the quality of their contracting data, and SBA has helped them do additional analysis to find irregularities.  We’re also working to give the public more tools to see our progress online through this dashboard.

Overall, our commitment is to make sure that America’s innovative job creators – small businesses – are getting as many opportunities as possible to market their innovative products and services to the federal government… and create good jobs as a result.