Proposed rule looks at small business and subcontractors

Here is a collection of articles that deal with a proposed FAR rule. As the introduction to the rule states,

Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) (Pub. L. 109-282) requires the existence and operation of a searchable website that provides public access to information about Federal expenditures

This proposed rule puts into place the FAR requirements to make this happen. Among the issues this raises is the public access to subcontractor information that has not be available in the past. This information will eventually be captured and searchable at federalspending.gov.

A secondary issue is that small businesses, which have received a pass on a lot of accountability issues, will be faced with the government wanting- and getting- more details about how they do business.

Emily Murphy, the General Services Administration’s former chief acquisition officer, says that the government will have more information than ever on small businesses, so they need to better manage their government contracts.

Murphy said many small businesses have not mastered the intricacies of their contracts. For example, FAR small-business set-aside provisions limit how much of the contract’s subcontracting work can go to large businesses.

That means more work for them, reducing their ability to be fully functioning business partners.

[Note: Rep. Jim Moran says that about "ninety percent of the companies receiving small-business set-aside contracts will go out of business." Another encouraging word.]