Eligibility | The Contracting Education Academy

Nearly 90% of women-owned small business sole source contracts reviewed by the SBA Office of Inspector General (OIG) were improper, according to a startling report issued last week.

In the study, the SBA OIG concluded that because of pervasive flaws in the award of WOSB and EDWOSB sole source contracts, “there was no assurance that these contracts were awarded to firms that were eligible to receive sole-source awards under the Program.” And if that wasn’t enough, the SBA OIG reiterated its position that, as a legal matter, it is improper to award any WOSB or EDWOSB sole source contract to a self-certified company.

The SBA OIG studied 56 WOSB and EDWOSB sole source contracts awarded between January 1, 2016 and April 30, 2017. This pool “represented 81 percent of the Program’s contracts awarded on a sole-source basis for this time period.”

The results were startling: SBA OIG determined that “Federal agencies’ contracting officers and firms did not comply with Federal regulations for 50 of the 56 Program sole-source contracts, valued at $52.2 million.” As a result, there was no assurance that these contracts were awarded to eligible WOSBs and EDWOSBs.

Keep reading this article at: http://smallgovcon.com/women-owned-small-business-program/sba-inspector-general-89-of-wosb-sole-source-contracts-were-improper/

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is failing to adequately screen the eligibility of small businesses applying for the federal government’s longest-standing contract preference program.

In an examination of applications for the 8(a) Program by the SBA’s Inspector General, 30 of 48 applicants did not meet one or more areas of eligibility,

The Office of Inspector General’s (OIG’s) Audit Report 16-13, SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program Eligibility, presents the results of the OIG’s audit of the 8(a) Program. The 8(a) Program provides economically and socially disadvantaged, small business owners with business development assistance and preference-based Federal contracts.

SBA’s Director of the Office of Certification and Eligibility (OCE) and the Associate Administrator for Business Development (AA/BD) gathered additional information for 18 firms and, based on this information, approved the firms into the 8(a) Program. However, for the remaining 30 firms, the AA/BD approved the firms without full documentation in the agency’s Business Development Management Information System (BDMIS) on how all areas of concern regarding eligibility raised by lower-level reviewers were resolved. As a result, it was not clear whether these 30 firms should have been approved into the 8(a) Program.

During the past year within SBA, the 8(a) Program has experienced a change in leadership, identified an aggressive growth plan for the coming years, began testing a streamlined application process, and shifted responsibilities for continuing eligibility reviews. In its report to SBA leadership, the OIG encourages management to ensure the documentation supporting 8(a) Program application approvals is maintained in a method ensuring clear eligibility of the applicant.

The OIG made two specific recommendations to improve SBA’s eligibility determination process for the 8(a) Program:

Update policy to require the AA/BD and OCE’s director to clearly document their justification for approving or denying applicants into the 8(a) Program, particularly when those decisions differed from lower-level recommendations.
Provide documentation on how eligibility concerns raised by lower-level reviewers were resolved for the 30 firms not documented in BDMIS by April 11, 2016.

A copy of the full report by the SBA’s OIG can be found here: https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/oig/16-13_SBAs_8a_Business_Development_Program_Eligibility.pdf

SBA IG: 89 percent of WOSB sole source contracts were improper

Nearly 90% of women-owned small business sole source contracts reviewed by the SBA Office of Inspector General (OIG) were improper, according to a startling report issued last week.

SBA gets 8(a) applications right only 37% of the time in sample by OIG

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is failing to adequately screen the eligibility of small businesses applying for the federal government’s longest-standing contract preference program.

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