Small Businesses Receive More than $90 Billion in Federal Contracts in FY11

Small business procurement is one of the largest and most important programs for small businesses across the federal government.   In FY2011 the federal government awarded more than $91.5 billion in federal contracts to small businesses, which represented 21.65 percent of small business eligible federal contract dollars.  During the first three years of the Obama Administration, the federal government awarded $286.3 billion or 22.07 percent in federal contracting dollars to small businesses.  This is a $32 billion increase over the three preceding years even as contracting spending overall has declined across the federal government. 

Federal contracting with small businesses is a win-win.  Small businesses get the revenue they need to grow their revenues and create jobs.  Meanwhile, the federal government gets the chance to work with some of the most responsive, innovative and nimble companies in the U.S. —often with a direct line to their CEO. 

SBA is required to report to the President and Congress on achievements by federal agencies and departments against their annual procurement goals to ensure greater accountability.  The Small Business Procurement Scorecard provides an assessment of federal achievement in prime contracting and subcontracting to small businesses by the 24 Chief Financial Officers Act agencies.  It also measures progress that departments are making to ensure small business opportunities remain an integral part of their acquisition of goods and services to meet mission objectives.  The FY2011 Small Business Procurement Scorecard is now available on sba.gov.  

The FY2011 Small Business Procurement Scorecard reflects the need for improvement in small business procurement across the federal government.   Over the last year, SBA has increased its efforts and collaboration with our federal agency partners to provide more opportunities for small business to compete for and win federal contracts, but we know more must be done to ensure that more contracts get into the hands of small businesses.  The SBA is focused on a number of initiatives to help the government meet the 23 percent goal, ensure the accuracy of data, and prevent fraud, waste and abuse, including:

• Implementing the 19 contracting provisions related to increasing opportunities for small business contracting and minimizing fraud, waste and abuse in the programs in the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010;
• Significantly improving the quality of small business procurement data;
• Collaborating with White House and Administration Senior Officials to help ensure top-level leadership commitment from across the federal government to utilize small businesses;
• Training prospective and existing small businesses to acquire the confidence and skills needed to successfully  compete for and win federal contracts through GC Classroom;
• Conducting outreach and matchmaking events across the country to ensure that small businesses everywhere have direct access to federal buyers; and
• Promoting Small Business Partnerships, such as with the IBM Foundation's Supplier Connection to help make it easier for small businesses to gain access to more than $300 billion in combined supply chain spending by a consortium of 17 of America's largest corporations.

Small businesses are an integral part of our economic recovery. SBA and the Obama Administration will continue to provide small business owners the necessary tools to ensure they have the wind at their back, enabling them to grow and create jobs.

For more information about the Small Business Procurement Scorecard, visit sba.gov.

About the Author

John Shoraka is the Associate Administrator for Government Contracting and Business Development at the U.S. Small Business Administration.