News analysis: Big opportunities for 8(a)s from graduating firms

For a company in the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program, one of the best areas to look for new opportunities is in expiring 8(a) contracts held by firms that have graduated from the program since the award.

If the contracts were 8(a) set-asides, under current regulations they generally must remain 8(a) set-asides.

The 8(a) graduates are allowed to complete the contracts until expiration. But when those expiring contracts are up for renewal, the graduated firms are no longer eligible for the work, clearing the way for new 8(a) vendors to take over.

A recent study by Bloomberg Government honed in on this category of opportunities to identify billions of dollars being made available to 8(a) companies in the next several years.

For knowledge-based services, including professional services, program management, and engineering and technical services, there are about $2.5 billion worth of 8(a) opportunities to be made available in expiring contracts previously held by graduated 8(a) firms in the next four years, according to Bloomberg Government quantitative analysts Duncan Amos and Miguel Garrido in their report.

About half of that, or $1.2 billion, will be made available in that category in fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2016, they said.

The federal agency with the most upcoming opportunities in that category is NASA, with $600 million in potential opportunities of that type in the next four years, Amos and Garrido said.

“The federal agency with the most upcoming opportunities in that category is NASA, with $600 million in potential opportunities of that type in the next four years...”

Second is the Health and Human Services Department, with about $300 million available in that category, they said.

For technical services, they estimated about $500 million in 8(a) opportunities from expiring 8(a) contracts held by graduates in the next five years. About $100 million of that was for the Homeland Security Department, they said.

Contractors in the 8(a) program “can find potential opportunities by examining the largest contracts that can no longer be held by their incumbents,” they wrote.

Bloomberg did not offer any details on the expiring 8(a) contracts that are ripe for turnover in its publicly-released report.

However, Set-Aside Alert combed through federal databases and our own 8(a) database resources to identify several of the largest soon-to-be-expiring 8(a) set-aside contracts at NASA that currently are held by graduates of the 8(a) program.

They include:

NASA’s Expiring 8(a) Contracts

Contract: NNG10CR25C
Agency: Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
NAICS Code: Systems Engineering Services 541712
Award date: 8-14-2010
Completion Date: 11-30-2015
Vendor: Columbus Technologies and Services Inc., graduated 12/29/2012.
Total spending: $190 million to date in 73 transactions (as of Sept. 22, 2014-USASpending.gov).

Contract: NND10AH15C
Agency: Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA
NAICS Code: Support, Administrative, Other, 561110
Award date: 2-17-2010
Completion Date: 02-28-2015
Vendor: Media Fusion Inc., graduated 2/20/2010
Total spending: $20.2 million in 60 actions (as of Sept. 22, 2014 via USASPending.gov)

Contract: NNM11AA39C
Agency: Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL
NAICS Code Architecture/Engineering Services 541330
Award date: 03-04-2011
Completion Date 02-29-2016
Vendor: Kaya Associates Inc., graduated 12/3/2013.
Total Spending: $19.3 million to date in 48 actions

Overall, 8(a) companies were awarded $22.6 billion in federal contracts in fiscal 2013, according to USASpending.gov.

The amount awarded to those firms through competitive set-asides was $9.7 billion, while another $7.9 billion was awarded noncompetitively.

More Information: Bloomberg Government report: http://goo.gl/FqTS8r

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