Sole Source Awards to Small, Disadvantaged Businesses

One of the most important tools the Government has to work directly with small, disadvantaged businesses is the authority to make sole source awards. Stephanie Ellis reviews the basics of making sole source awards in a recent SmallGovCon article.

• 8(a) sole source awards are the least restrictive and therefore the most common. The CO can give 8(a) services work to a responsible 8(a) firm if under $4.5 million, or a higher value if there’s no reasonable expectation that two 8(a) firms would submit a proposal, and the award can be made at a reasonable price.
• WOSB sole source awards are less common. COs must “consider” a sole source award to a WOSB or EDWOSB if under $4.5 million for services, there’s no reasonable expectation that two or more WOSB/EDWOSB concerns will submit a proposal – and the SBA has listed the NAIC as a service in which WOSBs concerns are underrepresented. Note that these NAICs include 541618 (Other Management Consulting Services), 541990 (All Other Professional, Science, and Technology Services), and 611430 (Professional and Management Development Training), among other USAID-related categories.
• SDVOSB/VOSM sole source awards are also not common, especially for USAID. Similar to the WOSB authority, COs must “consider,” but is not required to make a sole source award when they do not expect to receive two or more proposals from eligible SDVOSB/VOSBs and the award is estimated to be less than $4.5 million. The requirement must also be synopsized and posted.
• HUBZone sole source awards are subject to similar standards as WOSB/EDWOSB and SDVOSB/VOSB sole source awards.

The bottom line is that work under $4.5 million that can be done by an 8(a) firm, can be readily sole-sourced by an agency. For WOSB/EDWOSB, SDVOSB/VOSB, and HubZone program participants, the expectation is that competition is the rule, therefore the threshold for sole sourcing is the expectation that two proposals will not be received.

Read more here.