Even with the possibility of another government shutdown and deteriorating hope for an actual fiscal year 2016 budget (continuing resolutions are most likely) there is still optimism within the small business sub-community for fiscal year 2016.

On Sept. 14, 2015 SBA issued a final rule allowing sole-source awards for Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSBs) and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSBs) for contracts of less than $4 million ($6.5 million for manufacturers) in cases where a certain WOSB is the only company capable of fulfilling the government's requirements.

This rule, which goes into effect on Oct. 14, 2015, implements amendments made to the WOSB Program in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2015. In addition to giving contracting officers the ability to negotiate contracts with a WOSB without announcing the opportunity, it also decreases the time frame for SBA's mandatory study assessing industries in the federal contracting space where WOSBs are underrepresented.

For the last two years, agencies met or exceeded their prime contracting achievement goals for small businesses as a whole, but fell short of meeting the goal for WOSBs by .68 percent in 2013 and .32 percent in 2014. As I mentioned in my last blog post, meeting SBA priming goals has been a priority for President Obama's administration. The theory is this SBA rule will be the final tool in contracting officers' belts that gets agencies to meet or exceed the WOSB goal.

While similar sole-source options also are also available to contracting officers for 8(a), Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses and HUBZONEs, CEOs and employees of these businesses should not be concerned about losing business because of the SBA rule. Because of the nature of sole-source contracts (only one company is capable), the SBA rule will not further divide the sole-source pie, but rather expand it to include WOSBs.

Sole-source opportunities are popular among contractors because they can accelerate the tedious acquisition process. This translates into a cheaper proposal process and ultimately a quicker pay schedule — attributes that are highly valued by small businesses with limited capital.

WOSB CEOs need to keep in mind the contention between the language addressing certification in the 2015 NDAA and the SBA's rule. Currently, WOSB can be certified through a SBA approved third party certifier or self-certify using the SBA's designated process. This becomes tricky because the NDAA instructed the SBA to eliminate self-certification. The SBA decided to hold off on implementing this portion of the language because including it would postpone the release of the WOSB sole-source rule.

It is in the best interest of self-certified WOSB to begin the third party certification process as soon as possible. Being certified through a third party removes ammunition from competitors looking to protest a sole-source contract award and decreases the risk of a contracting officer doubting the validity of a company's certification and going in another direction. And, in this contracting environment those are chances you don't want to take.

George Meyers is a managing partner at The Meyers Group.

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