Federal Agencies are required per contracting law to set aside 23% of their contracting funds for small and small disadvantaged businesses. If the government believes that small business is essential to this country as most of us do agree with this that small business is the backbone of our communities throughout this country.
Each week I meet travel agencies that would love to get into the government travel business. However most are discouraged before they even get started. They hear the challenges and the difficulty of new entrants in to the market. For our industry to thrive we must attract new travel companies and a younger generation to become interested in our industry.
The federal agencies need to put substance behind the initiatives and not just words of apology. We see going forward there are very real incentives positive and punitive adjustments being proposed in federal ETS2 travel RFP. These range from online adoptions to service level agreements and others. Also noting that the upside of these incentives does not appear to be in equal proportion as to the punitive side.
If this is deemed an appropriate government practice then why have Congress do the same to the federal agencies that do not meet their small business goals and set asides. They should have to forfeit those funds that should have been spent on small or disadvantaged business and going forward reallocate them to other programs or agencies that are capable of making these accomplishments or programs dedicated to SBA.
Why create a set aside 23% of their budget for federal agencies when year after year they fail to me their objectives and goals and there are no punitive changes to create changing behavior within an agency. If we make the federal agencies accountable maybe there is a chance to bring a level playing field resulting in new entrants to the market place and a desirable industry for the next generation of young people to enter.
By Rick Singer