Small Business

HUBZone Program Suffers From Reporting and Implementation Difficulties Gao ID: GAO-02-57 October 26, 2001

Congress created the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) program to stimulate economic development and create jobs in distressed urban and rural areas. To achieve these goals, the HUBZone program provides small businesses with greater access to federal contracting opportunities. Reported HUBZone program achievements for fiscal year 2000 were inaccurate because of data entry errors and insufficient guidance on how to report agency data. Federal agencies are having difficulty implementing the HUBZone program. The primary reasons that federal contracting personnel gave for not using the HUBZone program to award contracts were (1) the small number of Small Business Administration (SBA) certified HUBZone firms, (2) difficulty identifying certified firms with the capabilities needed by federal agencies, (3) SBA's guidance that emphasizes the 8(a) program over the HUBZone program, and (4) easier and quicker procedures to award contracts under the 8(a) program.

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