@VilmaBetancourt

Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program

A Review of the of the

US Government Accountability Office’s Report:

Certifier Oversight and Additional Eligibility

Controls are Needed

(What, Who, Why, When)

Helping Women Grow their Businesses with WBE/WOSB/EDWOSB Certification

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

What: The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) was

asked by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to review the

Women-Owned Small Business Program (WOSB)

What the GAO reviewed:

•Relevant laws, Regulations, Program Documents

What the GAO analyzed:

•Federal Contracting Data from April 2011 to May 2014

Who the GAO interviewed:

•SBA employees

•Officials from Contracting Agencies

•Third-party Certifiers (except for WBENC)

•Women-Owned Small Businesses

•Organizations that represent the interests of Women-Owned Small Businesses

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

What was the focus of the GAO’s review?

The GAO examined, from August 2013 to October 2014, three areas of the

WOSB Program for the time period April 2011 to May 2014:

• How businesses are certified.

•Oversight procedures in place.

•The effectiveness of the procurement program – has it helped WOSBs and

Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSB)?

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

What The GAO Reviewed

• “How Women Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs) and Economically Disadvantaged

WOSBs (EDWOSBs) are certified as eligible for the program.”

•“SBA Policies and Procedures to establish program eligibility, including the

responsibilities of businesses, third-party certifiers, contracting officers and the SBA.”

• Monthly reports from September 2011 – May 2014 from each of the four third-party

certifiers (SBA provided these reports).

• Developed “a dataset” they “could use for analyses, including creating and merging

monthly spreadsheets, identifying missing business names, and clearing the list of

duplicate entries.”

• The dataset was compared with the “Federal Procurement Data System-Next

Generation (FPDS-NG) for businesses that received WOSB program set-aside contracts.

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

Why did the GAO Review the WOSB Program?

The Small Business Administration asked the Government Accountability Office to

review the existing “Women-Owned Small Business Program including any effects it has

had on increasing contracting opportunities for WOSBs”. (The 2015 NDAA has made

changes to the WOSB program. Those changes are not reflected in this report.)

The SBA expects to have completed a new study of underrepresented EDWOSBs and

substantially underrepresented WOSBs by 2015 (no definitive information given).

When did the Review take place?

The audit took place from August 2013 to October 2014.

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

What options are available for a WOSB/EDWOSB certification?

1. Self-certifying as a Women-Owned Small Business or an Economically

Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business through SAM

(https://www.sam.gov/portal/SAM/##11) (free) (the 2015 NDAA removed the

self-certification option)

2. Certification by a Third-party SBA-approved certifiers (fees apply):

•El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

•National Women Business Owners Corporation

•US Women’s Chamber of Commerce

•Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) (WBENC no

longer certifies EDWOSBs)

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

What are the fees of the Third-party Certifiers?

http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/666431.pdf

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

Who is the most active Third-party Certifier?

76% WBENC completed about 76% of ALL WOSB third-

party certifications performed from 8/2011 – 5/2014.

WBENC used 14 regional partner organizations to

review documents and issue certifications.

WBENC is the only third-party certifier not

interviewed by the GAO (p. 3 of GAO report).

The SBA does not have a copy of WBENC’s Standards and Procedures detailing

how they oversee Partner Organizations or Annual Compliance Reviews (p. 10).

SBA requested documents from WBENC and received an incomplete response

(p.11). The SBA did not follow up with WBENC on this matter.

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

SBA’s Annual Eligibility Examinations

In 2012 and 2013, the SBA conducted Annual Eligibility

Examinations on some of the businesses that received contracts

under the WOSB program. How many businesses were found

ineligible?

2012: 42% 2013: 43% Both self-certified and third-party certified businesses were

found to be ineligible at the time of the SBA review. The

SBA doesn’t know if in fact the businesses were ineligible

at the time of award. At 42% and 43%, there is an urgent

need to implement guidelines for everyone to follow.

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

SBA’s Annual Eligibility Examinations: No Controls in Place

After the SBA Annual Reviews, they did not institute new policies

to hinder fraud in the WOSB Program. Why? They felt:

• The examinations were a method to gain insight about the

program.

•The WOSBs may not understand the eligibility requirements.

(However, the SBA “could not explain how they had determined

lack of understanding was the cause of ineligibility among

businesses and have not made efforts to confirm that this was the

cause.”)

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

SBA’s Annual Eligibility Examinations: No Controls in Place

The SBA officials stated:

• “The levels of ineligibility found during the examinations were

similar to those found in examinations of its other socioeconomic

programs.”

•“WOSB businesses were deemed ineligible because they did not

understand the documentation requirements for establishing

eligibility and also attributed the ineligibility of third-party

certified businesses to improper uploading of documents by the

businesses themselves.” (The WBEs upload the documents, not

the Third-party certifiers.)

•SBA regards the bid protest process as a means of identifying

ineligibility, refers to the program as “self-policing”.

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

Third-party Certified WOSBs/EDWOSBs

The GAO “determined that the data on how many third-party

certified businesses received contracts as part of the WOSB

program were sufficiently reliable for our purposes by

corroborating a sample of businesses we identified as third-party

certified with documentation for the busineses in the WOSB

program repository. We were not able to determine how many

self-certified businesses obtained contracts under the program,

because the format of the documentation maintained in the

SBA repository does not include a record of documents that

were present at the time of contract award.”

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

WOSB Set-Aside Program Obligations

2012 2013

Women-Owned Small Business $33.30M $39.90M

Economically Disadvantaged

Women-Owned Small Business $39.20M $60.00M

The GAO found that “the WOSB program has had a

limited effect on Federal contracting opportunities

available to WOSBs.”

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

Federal Contracting Data: Top Departments & Agencies

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

Federal Contracting Data: Percentage of Contracts Awarded to

WOSBs

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

Federal Contracting Data: Percentage of Contracts Awarded to

WOSBs

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

What are the deficiencies that the GAO found?

•“ SBA performs minimal oversight of third-party certifiers – their

performance has not been reviewed.

• SBA has not developed procedures that provide reasonable assurance

that only eligible businesses obtain WOSB/EDWOSB set-aside contracts.

• SBA has not completed or implemented procedures to review the

monthly reports that third-party certifiers must submit.

• According to Federal standards for internal control, agencies should

have documented procedures, conduct monitoring, and ensure that any

review findings and deficiencies are resolved promptly.

• As a result of inadequate monitoring and controls, potentially ineligible

businesses may continue to incorrectly certify themselves as WOSBs.”

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

Recommendations by the GAO for Executive Action

“To help ensure the effective oversight of third-party certifiers, the Administrator

of SBA should establish and implement comprehensiveprocedures to monitor and

assess performance of certifiers in accord with the requirements of the third-party

certifier agreement and program regulations.

To provide reasonable assurance that only eligible businesses obtain WOSB set-

aside contracts, the Administrator of SBA should enhance examination of

businesses that register to participate in the WOSB program, including actions

such as:

• promptly completing the development of procedures to conduct annual eligibility

examinations and implementing such procedures;

• analyzing examination results and individual businesses found to be ineligible to

better understand the cause of the high rate of ineligibility in annual reviews, and

determine what actions are needed to address the causes; and

• implementing ongoing reviews of a sample of all businesses that have

represented their eligibility to participate in the program.”

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

What are the conclusions of the audit?

Conclusions:

1) “as the only Federal procurement set-aside specifically for

women-owned businesses, the WOSB program could play an

important role in limiting competition to certain Federal contracts

for WOSBs and EDWOSBs that are underrepresented in their

industries;

2) weaknesses in multiple areas of SBA’s management of the

program hinder effective oversight of the WOSB program.”

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

Suggested Changes That Might Increase Use of the WOSB Program

• Complexity and burdensome requirements – Contracting Officers

described challenges using the WOSB set-aside; advocates mentioned that

some Contracting Officers prefer the Third-party Certification.

Contracting Officers currently are required to confirm the WOSB had

uploaded required documents in the SBA repository is not required under

other contracting programs (this step is cumbersome and slows down the

process).

•Lack of awareness and agency commitment – An advocacy group

mentioned that their WOSB members encountered confusion and

reluctance on the part of the Contracting Officers to use the program.

• Changes to increase use of program – allowing Sole Source contracts (the

2015 NDAA now allows it), expanding the NAICS codes (SBA officials said

that they do not have the authority to change the list).

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

Disclosures

• Certified Site Visitor for the National Business Women Owners

Corporation (NWBOC), a Third-party Certifier of WBEs, WOSBs,

EDWOSBs, Veteran Business Enterprise (VBE), Veteran Woman

Business Enterprise (VWBE)

• Certified Business to Government Specialist/Consultant and an

experienced Government Contractor (Federal, State, Local

Municipalities)

• Woman/Minority/Small Business Enterprise Certification Consultant

This presentation was prepared by Vilma Betancourt-O’Day

(vilma@womenwrule.com). I am a:

I am not an employee nor have I been contracted by the US Government to review the GAO report

mentioned throughout this presentation. They have not endorsed or approved this document. Opinions,

other than what the report states, are my own interpretation of the findings. Opinions not to be construed as

legal advice. Report can be found at: http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/666431.pdf

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

My Thoughts on SBA Accepting State Certifications:

It is a mistake. What were they thinking?

There is no uniformity in the certification parameters/requirements from state

to state.

WOSBs/EDWOSBs must be US Citizens – some States don’t require U.S.

Citizenship.

A Net Worth limit of $750,000 may be imposed at the State level – that limit

applies only to Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Businesses at the

Federal level. Women whose Net Worth exceeds $750,000 and qualify for the

WOSB Certification cannot be certified at the State level.

State Certifications are not based on specific NAICS codes, as the WOSB

Program requires. Various States use NIGP, not NAICS.

Some States have seriously flawed Small/Minority/DBE Certification programs

and don’t require the extensive documentation that third-party certifiers require.

(South Carolina is in desperate need of an overhaul of their Governor’s OSMBA

Certification, trust me.)

@VilmaBetancourt

The Women-Owned Small Business Procurement Program:

A Review of the GAO Report (What, Who, Why, When)

Thank you! The Government Accountability Office has performed an outstanding job in reviewing the Women-Owned Small Business Program, and we are all grateful for their laser-focus on this issue. The Small Business Administration has worked very hard on helping WOSBs and we thank them for their guidance and dedication. Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) for their unwavering support of all WOSBs (disclosure: I am a proud member). Third-party certifiers for working closely with WOSBs to get them certified and helping them grow their businesses. Legislators who, for over a decade, have been writing and implementing the WOSB regulations. All WOSBs – let’s work together with WIPP to help the SBA set the procedures needed so only eligible WOSBs and EDWOSBs prosper under this program.