A new regulation announced by the Small Business Administration on November 15, 2006, to be effective on June 30, 2007, requires small businesses to recertify their size when they are purchased by or merged with a larger business, or at the end of the five-year point of a contract.  The rules are intended to help small businesses obtain more federal contracts and to assure that contracts set aside for small businesses are not going to larger companies.  As reported in the Thompson West publication, the Government Contractor Online Update, “According to SBA Administrator Steven Preston, the changes “will go a long way toward ensuring that contract awards get in the hands of small business owners, federal agencies get the proper credit toward their small business contracting goals and small business contracts are fairly and accurately reported..’”

There are critics of the new policy, however, who contend that the SBA has not gone far enough to prevent larges businesses from intruding into the small business marketplace.  The American Small Business League has commented that “A new policy proposed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) will allow the government to continue reporting awards to large companies as federal small business contracts.” (See the full article).

Pertinent parts of the new regulation are as follows:Continue Reading New SBA Regulations Require Small Businesses to Recertify After Five Years