IG Questions SBA Re-Certification Rule SBA’s inspector general says the agency made only limited progress during the past year in preventing large corporations from receiving small business contract awards. In his 2006 annual report, IG Eric Thorson said SBA “needs to work to close regulatory loopholes that allow agencies to take credit for meeting their small business procurement goals even though contracts are performed by large firms.” Thorson had recommended that SBA require annual re-certification of small business eligibility on GSA schedules and other long-term contracts. Instead, the agency adopted a final rule requiring re-certification every five years. Thorson had also proposed requiring contractors to certify their small business status every time they bid on a task order under a multiple award contract. Instead, SBA said contracting officers may require such a certification, but do not have to. (SAA, 11/24) In the light of the new rule, Thorson said he “will re-evaluate the matter to assess whether the agency should take other steps to address this problem.” On Thorson’s recommendation, the Senate Small Business Committee approved legislation requiring annual re-certification, but the bill never came up for a vote in the Senate. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who will become chairman of the committee when Democrats take control of Congress in January, has said he thinks five years before re-certification is too long. The IG’s annual report listed contracting as the number-one management challenge facing SBA. “SBA needs to do more to ensure that government contracting personnel receive adequate training on small business procurement procedures, promote contractor accuracy, and encourage greater accuracy in federal agency small business contracting reports,” the IG’s report said. It said SBA should develop and implement a plan to ensure that agencies’ reports of small business contracting are accurate. SBA reported that 25.36% of prime contract dollars went to small firms in 2005, based on official government records. But Democratic members of the House small business committee said the actual figure was 21.57%, because $12 billion in contracts were recorded as going to small firms when they actually went to large companies or nonprofits. (SAA, 8/11)