Fiscal year 2020 saw $145.7 billion in federal contracts awarded to small businesses, reflecting 26.01 percent of prime contracting dollars and a $13 billion increase from the previous year’s record, according to a Small Business Administration report.
SBA gave the federal government an overall rating of “A” on its annual scorecard for surpassing the 23 percent prime contracting goal, the agency said Thursday. Eight federal agencies achieved an “A+” for small business contracting efforts during FY 2020.
SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman said that entrepreneurs nationwide “used their trademark ingenuity, grit and determination to do a record amount of contracts” with the government despite a challenging year for the business sector.
The latest Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard shows that the government topped its service-disabled veteran-owned small business and small disadvantaged business targets of 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively.
However, the SBA noted that despite the overall increase in the number of small business awards, the number of small businesses that secured prime contracts from the federal government decreased.
“Our goal this year, and every year, is to make sure that small businesses can be like the giants they are in our economy and to create conditions to guarantee their success,” Guzman said.
The Biden administration aims to increase the target small disadvantaged businesses contract awarding to 50 percent for the next five years, according to SBA.
