Agencies Fell Short of Most Small Business Goals Small businesses’ share of the federal market fell slightly to 22% in fiscal 2007, down from 22.8% the year before and short of the goal of 23%, according to government figures that officials acknowledge may not be accurate. Only three agencies achieved their goals in all socioeconomic categories: VA, Energy and SBA. They were awarded green lights on SBA’s color-coded scorecard. The Justice Department and the Agency for International Development did not meet their goals in any category, receiving red lights on the scorecard. Individual agencies’ goals may be different from the governmentwide goals; Energy’s goals, for example, are lower. (See the full report.) Defense, by far the biggest spender, reported awarding 20.4% of its contract dollars to small firms, down from 21.8% in 2006. SBA Acting Administrator Sandy Baruah estimated that the record $83.2 billion reported as going to small firms may be overstated by as much as $5 billion, because of awards to large companies that were misclassified as small. “Errors are out there,” he said at a Washington news conference Oct. 22, but added that the data “is getting better every year.” Both SBA and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy have pressed agencies to improve the accuracy of their reports. The figures showed the government achieved its goal in only one socioeconomic category. Small disadvantaged businesses received 6.6% of contract dollars, above the 5% goal set by Congress. But that was down from 6.8% in 2006. SBA did not publish a governmentwide 8(a) figure; unlike other categories, the 2.5% 8(a) goal (half of the SDB goal) is not set by law. Woman-owned businesses won 3.4% of the dollars, the same as the year before, but short of the 5% goal. Service-disabled veteran-owned businesses received 1.01%. The goal is 3%. Only four agencies achieved their SDV goals: VA, Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and SBA. HUBZone firms won 2.2% of the dollars, shy of the 3% goal. “The federal government across all federal agencies has more work to do to ensure that we meet our goals for small business contracting,” Baruah said. Congressional critics spoke more strongly. House Small Business Committee Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez, D-NY, said, “This failure of the Bush administration to meet its 23 percent small-business goal is inexcusable. Given the continued miscoding of large-business contracts as ‘small,’ the one thing we do know is that the actual small-business percentage is below what the SBA is claiming.” SBA’s lack of effective oversight of contracting is “indefensible,” said Olympia Snowe, R-ME, the ranking Republican on the Senate Small Business Committee. (An earlier version of this story was available online on Oct. 23.)