October 17 2003 Copyright 2003 Business Research Services Inc. 202-364-6473 All rights reserved.

Features:
Web Watch
Procurement Watch
Issues
Teaming Opportunities
Recently Certified WBEs
Recently Certified 8(a)s
Recent 8(a) Contract Awards
Washington Insider
Calendar of Events
State of 8(a) Program is Debated at Summit
“I think graduation from the 8(a) program is an inappropriate term,” said Anthony Robinson, president of the Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund. “It’s ‘exiting’ "...

New Fiscal Year, New Procurement Rules
The Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council released final versions of several interim procurement rules that took effect at the beginning of the new fiscal year Oct. 1.

OMB Releases Competitive Sourcing Plans
Federal agencies have identified more than 103,000 jobs for public-private competitions, the Office of Management and Budget said.

GSA Contracting Investigation Widens
The General Services Administration’s inspector general is auditing the agency’s three largest regional offices in its investigation of misuse of funds in Federal Technology Service contracts.

Some GWACs to be Phased Out
GSA will retire four of its small governmentwide acquisition contracts because they duplicate the offerings on other contracts, Administrator Stephen Perry said.

Prison Industries Will Limit Market Share
Federal Prison Industries will limit its share of the federal market for any product to 20% and will reduce production of office furniture and textiles, the government corporation’s chief executive said.

Startups' Risk of Failure is Exaggerated, Study Says
Conventional wisdom holds that the vast majority of startup businesses – as many as nine out of 10, by some accounts – fail within a few years.

SBA Loans Set Record
A record number of small businesses received SBA loans last year, as the agency concentrated on making smaller loans without increasing the total dollars it guarantees.




*For more information about Set-Aside Alert, the leading newsletter
about Federal contracting for small, minority and woman-owned businesses,
contact the publisher Business Research Services in Washington DC at 800-845-8420