In the wake of a series of attacks from the American Small Business League accusing the federal government of misappropriating funds allocated to small firms, the US Small Business Administration is revising the format of the annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard.

SBA said the move was to “provide more clarity and transparency on the federal government’s performance in meeting its small business contracting goals” The revised scorecard will be based on an A through F letter grade system, as opposed to the previous red, yellow, green ratings.

“This revision to the Scorecard will provide greater clarity and transparency on how well each agency is doing in meeting its small business prime contracting goals,” said SBA administrator Karen Mills.

“This revision builds on our ongoing efforts to strengthen the integrity of the overall process for small business contracting, while also expanding opportunities for small businesses to compete for and win federal contracts.”

The revisions will appear when SBA issues its report later this year for federal contracting in fiscal year 2009.

SBA stated that the overall small business prime contracting goals have been established by Congress to ensure that small businesses get their fair share of federal contracts. The government-wide goal for prime contracts to small businesses is 23 per cent of total qualified contract dollars, with additional goals of 5 per cent for small disadvantaged businesses, 5 percent for women-owned businesses, 3 per cent for HUBZone small businesses, and 3 per cent for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

“The new scorecard holistically assesses an agency’s entire small business procurement performance. An agency’s overall grade will be comprised of three quantitative measures: prime contracts (80 per cent), subcontracts (10 per cent) and its progress plan for meeting goals (10 per cent),” according to SBA.

“The letter grades for prime contracting and subcontracting will show an A+ for agencies that meet or exceed 120 per cent of their goals, an A for those between 100 per cent and 119 per cent, a B for 90 to 99 per cent, a C for 80 to 89 per cent, a D for 70 to 79 per cent and an F for less than 70 per cent.”

Source:  http://www.procurementleaders.com/news/latestnews/1502-us-small-bus-procurement/