Small Business Contracting

GAO Report

Read the Full Report: Small Business Contracting: Action Needed by Those Agencies Whose Advocates Do Not Report to Agency Heads as Required (GAO-11-418).

Background

This document presents the results of GAO's survey of the directors of the Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) at 25 federal agencies. (The Department of Defense agencies, as well as some of the other agencies surveyed, refer to their offices as the Office of Small Business Programs. For simplicity, we use the term OSDBU for all agencies surveyed.) We received responses from all 25 OSDBU directors.

We conducted the Web-based survey to collect information about the duties and functions of the OSDBUs at 20 civilian agencies that procured more than $800 million in goods and services in fiscal year 2009; the Department of Defense-Office of the Secretary; Departments of the Air Force, Army, and Navy; and the Defense Logistics Agency. The 20 civilian agencies selected for the survey were the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, the Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, the Treasury, and Veterans Affairs; Environmental Protection Agency; General Services Administration; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Office of Personnel Management; Social Security Administration; and U.S. Agency for International Development. We selected the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Defense Logistics Agency because they were the four components within the Department of Defense that procured the most goods and services in fiscal year 2009.

In this e-supplement, we present the directors' responses to questions on their functions in three areas: participation in the agency procurement process, facilitation of small business participation in agency contracting, and interaction with the Small Business Administration. The questions covered the OSDBU functions listed in section 15(k) of the Small Business Act as well as additional functions that OSDBUs might perform. In addition, the survey asked OSDBU directors about challenges they might face in carrying out their responsibilities.

We administered the survey, which was similar to one we conducted in 2003, from November 2010 to December 2010 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. A more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology is contained in our report Small Business Contracting: Action Needed by Those Agencies Whose Advocates Do Not Report to Agency Heads as Required, GAO-11-418 (Washington, D.C.: June 3, 2011).

Contents

Contact

William B. Shear at (202) 512-8678 or shearw@gao.gov

(250598)

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