Small Business Program

Efforts to Increase Participation in State Department Contracts Gao ID: NSIAD-92-130 March 19, 1992

State Department data for fiscal years 1990 and 1991 show that the Department met or exceeded most of its goals for awarding contracts to small, small disadvantaged, and women-owned businesses. State Department officials said that most of these contracts were awarded to businesses in the Washington, D.C., area. GAO discovered, however, that the Department's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, which has a small staff and modest resources, has only a limited ability to promote the small business program. The office has done little to promote target business participation in overseas procurements, which may account for about half ($500 million) of the Department's contracting. GAO recommends that the Department develop a plan to promote more participation by small, small disadvantaged, and women-owned U.S. businesses in overseas procurements; prepare written descriptions identifying the roles and responsibilities of the major procurement units under the small business program; and automate records maintained by the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization on target businesses.

GAO found that: (1) the State Department met or exceeded most of its goals for awarding contracts to small, small disadvantaged, and women-owned businesses; (2) about 90 percent of the target businesses that receive State Department contracts are located in the District of Columbia (DC) area; (3) the State Department's centralized location, travel costs to pursue contract opportunities, and the lack of awareness of contracting opportunities by target businesses located outside of DC impede wider geographical distribution of contract awards to target businesses; (4) the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization lacks an automated file detailing the capabilities of target businesses; (5) the limited awareness and understanding of the program exists because there is no formal relationship and little interaction between the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization and State Department units with procurement authority; and (6) the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization has not reviewed overseas procurement contracts to see if they could be awarded to target businesses and has excluded overseas contracts from its goals for target business participation because it believes that target business participation in overseas procurement opportunities is not required by law.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.