GAO pushes more Cat Mgmt, less overlap in PTACs, SBDCs

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      The Government Accountability Office proposed 112 new actions for Congress or executive branch agencies to take to improve government operations and effectiveness, including several that are likely to affect small federal contractors.

      For example, the GAO is advising an expansion of Category Management, which has trended toward a smaller percentage of awards for small businesses in the last four years.

      The GAO also is advising less duplication in the Defense Dept.’s Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs) and Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), which offer services to small federal vendors and would-be vendors.

Category Management

      The GAO proposed that the Office of Management and Budget should enlarge its Category Management initiatives. The goal is to improve how agencies buy common goods and services, achieving discounts through more efficient and larger buys. OMB reported saving $27 billion from Category Management from fiscal 2017-2019.

      GAO recommended that OMB address data management challenges and set additional performance metrics in Category Management to save billions of dollars over the next five years.

      However, while there are benefits to Category Management, the strategy also has resulted in a trend of lower percentages of awards to small business federal contractors in the last three years, according to the latest General Services Administration data.

      While small business Category Management awards have risen in the last four years, the small business share of Category Management awards peaked in fiscal 2018, and has fallen for the last three years.

Reducing PTACs, SBDC duplication

      While the DOD operates PTACs to assist small businesses with federal contracting, the SBA manages SBDCs, which offer similar services and a broader array of services.

      The GAO recommended that SBA and DOD make a formal agreement on services, to reduce duplication. While the agencies began informally collaborating in December, as of March there was no formal agreement, GAO said.

      The PTAC counselors receive training related to government contracting, while SBDC counselors do not. “This could lead to SBDCs’ advice to businesses being less accurate than the advice they would receive from PTACs,” GAO wrote in the report.

More information:
GAO report:https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-455sp.pdf
GSA Cat Mgnt data:https://bit.ly/3zdiPFL

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