Small business contracting goal met by federal government for third year in a row
It looks like the federal government met its goal of awarding 23 percent of its procurement dollars to small businesses for the third year in a row.
That’s according to John Shoroka, who heads the Small Business Administration’s office of government contracting and business development. Final numbers aren’t available for fiscal 2015, which ended Sept. 30, but Shoroka told the House Small Business Committee Wednesday afternoon that preliminary data indicate the goal was met.
Hitting the goal should be routine — it’s not an arbitrary number; it’s a target established by Congress. But from 2006 to 2012, the federal government failed to reach it. As a result, small businesses missed out on billions of dollars in potential contracts.
The federal government also, for the first time, appears to have met its goal of awarding 5 percent of its prime contracting dollars to women-owned businesses in 2015, Shoroka said. Plus, agencies also hit their contracting goals for minority-owned businesses and businesses owned by service-disabled businesses.
