Contracting

Small Business Goaling

Did you know that formal goals are in place to ensure that small businesses get their fair share of work with the federal government? In fact, each federal agency must set an annual goal for participation in its contracts by various groups.

For example, here is a sampling of the statutory goals established by federal executive agencies:

23 percent of prime contracts for small businesses;
5 percent of prime and subcontracts for women-owned small businesses;
5 percent of prime contracts and subcontracts for Small Disadvantaged Businesses;
3 percent of prime contracts and subcontracts for HUBZone small businesses;
3 percent of prime and subcontracts for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.

The groups that are covered by these goals are small businesses, some with specific characteristics:

Small business concerns
Small business concerns owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans
Qualified HUBZone small business concerns
Small business concerns owned and operated by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals
Small business concerns owned and controlled by women

Visit the About Goaling Program and Program Information to learn about the Goaling program more.

How Agency Goals are Negotiated and Established

SBA is responsible for ensuring that the government-wide goal for participation of small business concerns is established annually at the statutory levels and the reporting agencies' achievements are relative to the goals.

Here is how the process works:

SBA negotiates with agencies to establish individual agency goals that, in the aggregate, constitute government-wide goals. In addition, SBA also negotiates a small business subcontracting goal based on recent achievement levels, and a HUBZone subcontracting goal equivalent to the required prime HubZone goal.
Before the beginning of the fiscal year, agencies submit their proposed goals to SBA.
SBA's Office of Government Contracting determines if these individual agency goals, in the aggregate, meet or exceed the government-wide statutorily mandated goals in each small business category.
SBA notifies the agencies of their final agency goals.

Visit the Goaling Guidelines under the Goaling Program to learn more about how goals are created and negotiated.

Fiscal Year 2012/2013 Agency Prime and Subcontracting Goals for 24 CFO Act Agencies

To see the individual goals for each of the 24 CFO Act agencies, please click here

There are 24 agencies that are subject to the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act. The 24 agencies are:

Agency for International Development (USAID)
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Department of Commerce (DOC)
Department of Defense (DOD)
Department of Education (Education)
Department of Energy (DOE)
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Department of the Interior (DOI)
Department of Justice (DOJ)
Department of Labor (DOL)
Department of State (State)
Department of Transportation (DOT)
Department of the Treasury (Treasury)
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
General Services Administration (GSA)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Social Security Administration (SSA)

Monitoring and Reporting Achievements Toward Goals

The Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) is the government’s official system for collecting, developing and disseminating procurement data. SBA uses the information in the FPDS to monitor agencies' achievements against goals throughout the year.

Agencies report each award over $25,000, including details such as: