Worries aired on category management

      The House Small Business Committee got a strong message from federal small business contractors and their representatives that the government’s category management initiatives are hurting their bottom lines.

      “We have never encountered a threat to small business’ full and fair access to federal contracts like we are confronting now,” Beth Laurie Strum, vice president of business development for IT Works, and representing the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, testified at the June 13 hearing.

      “In its current form, the Best-in-Class acquisition process picks winners and losers without assuring full and fair competition, thereby locking out thousands of small businesses from the very contract opportunities that were guaranteed to us in 1978 through Public Law 95-507,” Strum said.

      Her concerns were echoed by Shirley Bailey, chief executive of a HUBZone firm MSC Management Services, representing the HUBZone Contractors National Council.

      “As the government moves away from direct contracts with businesses (Tier Zero), opportunities decrease for smaller businesses,” Bailey said. Relying on agency-wide and government-wide contracts “erects barriers for small businesses.”

      Many of those government-wide contracts have stringent past-performance requirements that lock out small firms, she added.

      Alan Chvotkin, vice president of the Professional Services Council, cautioned against “unintended consequences” from category management that are hurting small firms.

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