2002 Contracting Falls Short of Small Business Goals Small businesses’ share of the federal contract pie shrank in fiscal 2002 as the government failed to reach the congressionally mandated 23% goal for the third straight year, said Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), ranking minority member of the House Small Business Committee. Velazquez released only a summary of the report from the Federal Procurement Data Center. The center has not yet made its figures public. She said agencies awarded 2.9% of their contract dollars to women-owned businesses during the year, the best performance ever, but still far below the 5% goal set by Congress nearly 10 years ago. She said the dollars going to minority businesses dropped sharply from 2001 as the government fell short of procurement goals in every socioeconomic category. “From the data we have seen so far, the federal government is spending more, but it has missed its small business goals,” Velazquez said in a statement. “The administration’s plan to increase opportunity for small business is clearly ineffective.” In its annual procurement report, the Defense Department sai d it awarded 21.2% of its prime contract dollars to small firms, up from 20.8% in 2001. DOD attributed the increase to greater small business participation in acquisitions related to aircraft, ships and commercial items. The small business share of Defense contracts grew by nearly 18% over the previous year, while total Defense procurement grew less than 16%. Defense prime contract awards to small businesses totaled $33.3 billion. Small firms’ share of reported subcontract dollars fell 4.7%, to 34%, or a total of $25.8 billion. These official figures have been branded unreliable by General Accounting Office investigators. In a report to Congress, GAO said the figures include billions of dollars awarded to companies that have outgrown small business size standards, but can still be counted as small for reporting purposes because of loopholes in laws and regulations. (SAA, 5/16) Federal agencies reported awarding 22.8% of their dollars to small firms in 2001 and 22.3% in 2000.