SBA announces small business procurement of 25.05% in FY18

Small biz awards hit $120.8B; # of small vendors drops

      For the sixth year in a row, the government has exceeded the 23% goal for small business prime contract procurement, reaching 25.05% for fiscal 2018, the Small Business Administration announced.

      That is up from 23.9% for fiscal 2017.

      Small business prime contract awards achieved a record $120.8 billion in fiscal 2018, up from $105.7 billion the year before, the SBA said.

      The government met its goals for small disadvantaged businesses and for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs).

      However, the government fell short on its goals for procurements from women-owned and HUBZone small vendors.

      Another disappointment was that the number of small businesses at the top 24 federal agencies dropped to 111,102 in fiscal 2018, down from 119,336 the year before. That is a reduction of 8,234 firms, a 6.9% decrease at those agencies.

      Overall, the SBA gave the government an “A” grade on its small business procurement performance for fiscal 2018.

      The growth in small business procurement occurred against a backdrop of expanding contract spending considered eligible for small business buys. Such spending rose to $482 billion in fiscal 2018, up from $442.5 billion in fiscal 2017, a 9% increase.

      The small business dollars awarded increased by $15 billion, or 14.4%, during the period.

Annual scorecard

     The SBA issues a Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard, and individual scorecards for the top 24 federal agencies, every year.

      While the government’s overall goal is to achieve at least 23% in small business procurement, each agency negotiates individual goals with SBA. The SBA considers a number of factors in grading each agency.

      More detailed data is released in a Small Business Goaling Report, available on the Federal Procurement Data System website, every year. There are data discrepancies between the FPDS data and the SBA’s reports.

Small biz categories

      The value of awards in each small business category went up in fiscal 2018 in comparison to fiscal 2017, but the percentages achieved fell short of meeting all goals:

• Small Disadvantaged: percentage rose to 9.65% of eligible procurements, up from $9.1%, meeting 5% goal; awards rose to $46.5 billion, up from $40.2 billion;
• Women-Owned: percentage increased to 4.75%, up from 4.71%, short of 5% goal; awards increased to $22.9 billion, from $20.8 billion;
• SDVOSBs: percentage hit 4.27%, from 4.05%, exceeding 3% goal; awards reached $20.6 billion, from $17.9 billion;
• HUBZone: percentage rose to 2.05%, from 1.65%, short of 3% goal; awards increased to $9.9 billion, from $7.3 billion.

Agency results

      The SBA gave 8 federal agencies “A+” grades, while 12 got an "A,” three received a "B" and one got a "C" grade.

See FY2018 Small Business Goals Summary Report here

      The Defense Dept. met its negotiated 22% goal for small business procurements, attaining 24.12%, up from last year’s 23.3%. Dollars awarded to small businesses totaled $72 billion, up from $61.4 billion.

      DOD met its goals for small disadvantaged and service-disabled veterans. DOD’s HUBZone awards comprised 1.97%, up from 1.56%.

      The department made no progress on women-owned contracting. It awarded 4.1% to women-owned small firms, down from 4.21% the year before.

      Overall, DOD received an “A” for small business procurement.

More information:
FY2018 governmentwide scorecard: https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2019-06/G_W.pdf
Procurement scorecards: https://bit.ly/2GGu8d3
FPDS goaling report: https://bit.ly/2FB0M2b

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