The Small Business Administration (SBA) has awarded a $5.5 million contract to Consult DSA, a woman-owned small business based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to implement improvements amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency reported on Friday. The contract is set to run for a base of 12 months, with four one-year add-on options.
Consult DSA will work to validate the findings in previous reports “to ensure future disaster response efforts continue to be efficient and effective,” implement sound improvements from those reports and validate and implement findings from future reports.
The Office of Disaster Assistance “anticipates completing similar after-action reports for future large-scale disasters that may occur, and ODA is seeking contractor assistance with other process improvements identified during these reviews,” the SBA stated.
With SBA’s role in disbursing emergency aid in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the pandemic will likely be included in one of those future reports.
The award has been issued through a solicitation for “Ongoing Process Improvement Validation and Implementation.” The SBA selected Consult DSA to analyze the effects of the 2017 hurricane season, one of the worst years on record and the agency’s “second-largest disaster to date,” according to the solicitation.
In addition to the SBA’s contract with Consult DSA, Jovita Carranza, administrator of the agency, has launched the $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program, an emergency loan program created last week with the President's signing of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the SBA announced in April 2020.
"These loans will bring immediate economic relief and eight weeks of financial certainty to millions of small businesses and their employees," Carranza said. "We urge every struggling small business to take advantage of this unprecedented federal resource – their viability is critically important to their employees, their community, and the country."
The program will provide forgivable loans up to $10 million to small businesses left financially distressed by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The loans will be administered at the local level by a national network of banks and credit unions and are designed to maintain the viability of millions of small businesses struggling to meet payroll and day-to-day operating expenses.
About SBA
Created in 1953, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) continues to help small business owners and entrepreneurs pursue the American dream. The SBA is the only cabinet-level federal agency fully dedicated to small business and provides counseling, capital, and contracting expertise as the nation’s only go-to resource and voice for small businesses.
