The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) scored another “A” grade with the Small Business Administration (SBA) for meeting its various targets for prime and subcontractor work for small businesses, the SBA says in its annual scorecard.
DHS doled out $4.7 billion in prime contract awards to small companies in FY ’15 out of $13.9 billion in total eligible dollars for prime contracts, the SBA says. That means small businesses won 34 percent of the work, topping the department’s goal by 2 percent.
“I am pleased to announce for the seventh year in a row, the Department of Homeland Security has earned an “A” grade,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says of the SBA scoring. He says that in FY ’15, 9,500 small businesses held DHS contracts.
In the other prime contractor award categories, DHS also topped the SBA’s goals. The department awarded 14.7 percent of prime contract to small and disadvantaged businesses and 7.3 percent of contracts to woman owned small businesses, both which had 5 percent targets.
For service disabled veteran-owned small businesses and HUB Zone small businesses, both of which had 3 percent targets, DHS awarded 5.4 percent and 4.1 percent of prime contract dollars respectively to these firms.
For subcontractor work, SBA set a 41 percent goal and DHS delivered 42.3 percent of eligible dollars to small businesses, according to the scorecard. The department also handily beat SBA’s goals for small business subcontracts in the disadvantaged and women-owned categories. DHS also topped the goal for services disabled veteran-owned small businesses.
The only category where DHS missed the SBA’s subcontracting target was the HUB Zone small businesses, which received 2.1 percent of eligible dollars versus the 3 percent goal.
Out of 24 departments and agencies scored, three received “A+” grades from SBA, 18 “A” grades, and three “B” grades. In FY ’14 DHS achieved an “A+” grade.