SBA’s Shoraka: Mentor-Protege program final rule coming soon

The Small Business Administration’s final rule on a governmentwide mentor-protege program for all small businesses should be published in June, according to John Shoraka, the SBA’s associate administrator of government contracting and business development.

“It will be set up at SBA as a program,” Shoraka said on May 12 at the GovConNet conference in Bethesda, MD. “We’ve been working on it for a year.”

Since the SBA received no additional funding to run the expanded mentor-protege program, the agency has reallocated funds and asked to reorganize some of its personnel, he said.

“We have a reorganization document that’s being reviewed,” Shoraka said. “The program should be in place by end of the fiscal year.”

SBA’s Jackie Robinson-Burnette, associate administrator, will be in charge of the new program.

When will the final rule take effect governmentwide? “We think it’s a rule when we publish the final rule, but some contracting officers will want to wait until it is in the Federal Acquisition Regulation,” Shoraka added.

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