The New York Times is a small business???

Lately, there has been an increased emphasis on correctly entering the Contracting Officer Determination of Business Size and how incorrectly entering the data can create headaches down the road. While not on the front page of the Washington Post (a contracting officer's greatest nightmare), here is a lengthy article in The New York Times blog's business section that points out how important it is in the Big Scheme of Things to accurately complete the Contract Action Report.

While the article does not go so far as to say that awarding contracts reserved for small businesses to large businesses is a catastrophe, it does say that critics have long reported that the government's efforts are not as much as reported. Also, government efforts might diminish if mandatory goals appeared to be met.

Regardless, a quote from the article shows what others outside our profession believe about the federal procurement process, as a result of errors like this:

“Contract error and mismanagement amounts to tens of billions of dollars’ worth of contracts a year being diverted away from small business,” [Elliott Rosenfeld of the American Small Business League] added. “With such faulty standards of oversight, accountability and transparency, we wonder how easy it must be to hide fraud in the federal contracting process.”

This article also correctly points out that the "official" size standards to be used as a reference at time of award found in the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), not the Central Contactor Registry (CCR). See DFARS 219.3 (you'll need scroll down or click the link for the subpart) for details and for the OUSD(AT&L) memo detailing how to correctly report the contractor's business size.

One more reminder to be careful, accurate and timely in reporting contract actions and that the additional care and time you take will reflect well on our profession.