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DOD M-P gets board support

Six recommendations

      A Defense Dept. advisory board recently recommended authorizing the longstanding DOD Mentor-Protege Program as a permanent program, along with other steps to support the program and small business defense contractors.

      The Defense Business Board’s Business Operations Advisory Subcommittee found that the program has been a valuable resource for increasing small business participation and diversity. More than half of the 1,200 former DOD proteges continue to be DOD suppliers.

      The six recommendations were:

1. Congress must establish the DOD Mentor-Protege Program as a permanent program. The program has been a “pilot” program for nearly 30 years, creating “concern and confusion,” the panel wrote in its report.
2. As the number of small business suppliers to DOD has been declining, limiting protege participation, more incentives should be created to encourage mentors and proteges to participate. A possibility is allowing joint ventures.
3. DOD must improve the data used to evaluate effectiveness of the Mentor-Protege Program. Dashboards could be used to track the number of M-P agreements, performance, sector, resources, awareness and small business alignment, for example.
4. DOD should designate a single office to oversee all DOD small business programs. Currently “these programs are disparate and spread throughout the department,” the report said.
5. Allow Mentor-Protege agreements to be in effect for three years, with extension options if appropriate. The current time limit is two years. “This duration is not sufficient to consistently enable the protege to develop the skills necessary to independently become a direct supplier to the DOD,” the report indicated.
6. Implement a robust marketing program to raise awareness of the DOD Mentor-Protege Program.

More information:
Report: https://bit.ly/3PztZLZ

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