The federal government achieved its small business contracting goal, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced on Friday.
This was the second consecutive year the government achieved this goal, awarding 24.99 percent in federal contracts to small businesses in 2014, the highest percentage since a 23 percent goal was established in 1997.
The SBA released the FY 2014 Small Business Procumbent Scorecards at the event, which provides an assessment of each agency’s yearly small business contracting achievements compared to its goal.
The Defense Department was specifically awarded an “A” on its procurement scorecard for contract goal achievements.
The announcement was made at a press conference with SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet and Frank Kendall, the Pentagon acquisition chief.
“We’re celebrating the federal government’s best year ever for small business contracting and it’s a testament to the world-class services that America’s entrepreneurs are providing their government across every federal agency,” Contreras-Sweet, said.
Two of the department’s successful small business contractors were recognized at the event: Bannekar Ventures, LLC and Integrated Finance and Accounting Solutions, LLC, a woman-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned Virginia firm.
Twenty agencies total were awarded an “A” or “A+” for achieving small business contracting goals. The Department of Homeland Security, Department of Commerce, and U.S. Agency for International Development were the “A+” recipients.
The scores took in to account five prime contracting and socio-economic categories, which all showed improvements over FY 2013: small business, women-owned small business, small disadvantaged business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, and Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone).