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GAO-02-166R 1 (2001-12-13)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptanvd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Accountability * Integrity Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 December 13, 2001 The Honorable Christopher S. Bond Ranking Minority Member Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship United States Senate Subject: Small Business Subcontracting Report Validation Can Be Improved Dear Senator Bond: This letter responds to your request that we assess how agencies validate data submitted by prime contractors on their subcontracting achievements. Subcontracting is an important avenue for enabling small businesses to participate in large dollar federal contracts. Of a total of $77 billion reported subcontracted dollars in fiscal year 2000, $31 billion went to various types of small businesses, such as women-owned, and small disadvantaged businesses, as well as those located in historically underutilized business zones called HUBZones. You also requested that we answer two specific questions on subcontracting substitution and evaluations of contractor past performance. Our responses are provided in enclosure III. RESULTS IN BRIEF Civilian and defense agencies follow a similar process to validate their subcontracting data-one that involves visiting contractors, assessing their compliance with their subcontracting plans, and evaluating accounting systems as well as management support of the subcontracting program. These assessments have found that most contractors that were reviewed are making good faith efforts to comply with their subcontracting plans. However, there are some areas where these reviews could be improved in order to enhance the validation and use of subcontracting data, and we have identified actions that can be taken to bring about these improvements. We received written comments on a draft of this letter from the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Small Business Administration (SBA). DOD concurred with our findings and recommendations and had no further comment. SBA also concurred with our recommendations but expressed concerns about how we characterized SBA's compliance efforts. DOD's and SBA's written comments are provided in enclosures I and II. GAO-02-166R Subcontracting Data

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