SBA Will Push Annual Recertification on GSA Schedules, GWACs SBA plans to push ahead with a rule requiring companies to recertify their small-business eligibility annually on GSA schedules and governmentwide acquisition contracts. However, the rule will not require companies to recertify when options are exercised on individual set-aside contracts. SBA’s inspector general, Harold Damelin, reported that the agency was planning to send its proposed final rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review by the end of February. SBA did not reply to a query about whether the rule has been submitted. “The five-year size recertification period for small business set-aside contracts will only continue the possibility of small businesses growing large and procuring agencies still being able to count contract actions as small,” Damelin wrote in a report dated Feb. 24. “Therefore all multi-year contracts should be held to an annual size recertification.” SBA published its proposed recertification rule in April 2003, but it immediately ran into opposition from many contractor groups and from the Defense Department and the General Services Administration. (SAA, 7/11/03) GSA currently requires schedule contractors to recertify their status when an option is exercised, usually every five years. Many comments on the proposed rule said it would penalize companies for growing. Several federal procurement officials said other agencies were resisting the SBA proposal, leading to the long delay in issuing a final rule. Investigations by the Government Accountability Office, SBA’s inspector general, its Office of Advocacy and private groups have turned up widespread evidence that large businesses are being counted as small ones on federal contracts. SBA issued a final rule in December to close one loophole by requiring a company to recertify its small-business eligibility whenever it merges or is acquired. (SAA, 1/7) The IG also found that GSA is allowing schedule contractors to be counted as small even though they do not qualify under all NAICS codes. That is “contrary to SBA regulations,” the IG said, and GSA should make sure that a contractor qualifies as small under all NAICS codes on each task order.