GAO made several recommendations to improve SBA’s administration of the prime contracting, subcontracting, and 8a business development programs.
For example, it called on the agency to assess resources allocated for procurement center representative and commercial market representative functions and develop a plan to better ensure that these staff can carry out their responsibilities.
In order to better educate prospective applicants for the 8a program and maximize limited SBA resources during program tenure of participants, SBA should take additional steps to ensure that firms applying for the program understand its requirements, and have realistic expectations for participation, according to the report.
In acknowledgment of the competing demands for business development specialists to complete required annual reviews of 8a firms and support the mission of the 8a program, SBA should develop and prepare small disadvantaged firms for procurement and other business opportunities, the report said.
Further, it called on SBA to quickly develop and implement its proposed plan for creating tools that would assist in the provision of business development assistance for 8a firms, develop a timetable for planned changes to the termination process to ensure that staff monitoring 8a participants can carry out terminations from the program in a timely manner.
