The SDVOSB Business Helper
Government Business Development | Government | Resources and Insight | 6 Min Read
With the recent Veterans Day holiday having already passed, I have been giving extra thought to those in the service and wanted to finish up my initial blog covering the effectiveness of Executive Order 13360. To recap, Executive Order 13360 or “the 21 Gun Salute initiative” was implemented by the General Services Administration (GSA) and aimed at meeting and exceeding the 3% federal contracting goal with SDVOSBs. Here’s what I found out.
Did Executive Order 13360 work? (Part 2 – The Results)
On my last blog I reported that the Department of Defense only spent 1.43% on SDVOSB Prime contractors (1.35% for Subcontractors) in 2009. This was just my first search, however, and was sure I would see much better results from the rest of our federal agencies. I mean, 3% isn’t that lofty of a goal, is it? Well, here’s how the rest of the results looked (Format of the table below is Agency, 2008 SDVOSB Prime Contracting Achievement, 2009 Goal, 2009 SDVOSB Prime Contracting Achievement)
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|
|
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| Agency for International Development |
0.05% |
3.00% |
0.25% |
| Department of Agriculture |
2.07% |
3.00% |
2.59% |
| Department of Commerce |
1.91% |
3.00% |
1.99% |
| Department of Defense |
1.05% |
3.00% |
1.43% |
| Department of Education |
0.45% |
3.00% |
0.48% |
| Department of Energy |
0.52% |
0.70% |
1.20% |
| Department of Health and Human Services |
0.70% |
3.00% |
0.94% |
| Department of Homeland Security |
1.90% |
3.00% |
1.91% |
| Dept of Housing and Urban Development |
1.31% |
3.00% |
1.03% |
| Department of the Interior |
2.48% |
3.00% |
2.38% |
| Department of Justice |
1.05% |
3.00% |
0.80% |
| Department of Labor |
4.34% |
3.00% |
2.66% |
| Department of State |
2.18% |
3.00% |
1.87% |
| Department of Transportation |
1.75% |
3.00% |
1.71% |
| Department of the Treasury |
2.03% |
3.00% |
2.41% |
| Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) |
11.76% |
3.00% |
16.96% |
| Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) |
3.66% |
3.00% |
7.76% |
| General Services Administration (GSA) |
3.93% |
3.00% |
1.90% |
| National Aeronautics and Space |
1.33% |
3.00% |
1.42% |
| National Science Foundation |
0.02% |
3.00% |
0.33% |
| Nuclear Regulatory Commission |
0.70% |
3.00% |
2.26% |
| Office of Personnel Management |
1.05% |
3.00% |
0.15% |
| Small Business Administration (SBA) |
0.85% |
3.00% |
3.05% |
| Social Security Administration |
2.00% |
3.00% |
2.85% |
As you can see, it doesn’t appear that the 21-Gun Salute initiative has had any lasting effects on our government’s contracting activity with regard to exceeding the 3% spending goal for SDVOSBs. With the exception of the VA, the EPA and the SBA, no agency hit their 3% goal. Furthermore, of the 24 agencies that the SBA provided these Report Cards for, 15 agencies had less than 2% spent on SDVOSBs. The lowest was the Office of Personnel Management, which turned in a shameful 0.15%. Most improved certainly goes to the SBA, going from 0.85% all the way up to 3.05%. The EPA actually had a higher increase from 2008, but I congratulate the SBA on at least getting above their 1% mark and exceeding the 3%. Least improved actually goes to the agency that was charged with carrying out this Executive Order, GSA, which went from a respectable 3.93% all the way down to 1.90%.
Overall, I found these numbers to be somewhat alarming and was surprised at the lack of results. The positive thing that I would encourage SDVOSB owners and sales associates to do, would be to take a look at this list and note the agencies that are having trouble meeting their 3%, or even getting to 1%. If you can get in front of the decision makers at one of these agencies or meet with their Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization contact, you could make an honest selling point that you can help them increase their SDVOSB contracting results.
Happy belated Veterans Day and thank you for your service!
About Steve Young
Steve serves as the Director of the Technology Resale division. Steve manages all aspects of Winvale’s GSA Schedule contracts. Steve also leads the company in RFP/RFQ responses where Winvale is the Prime Contractor. Responsible for over 60 manufacturers on Winvale’s GSA Schedule contracts, Steve insures that each manufacturer’s products or services are compliant and within scope of each GSA contract.
