Wolf administration expands contract eligibility for certain small businesses
The Wolf administration has raised the annual revenue cap for small and small-diverse businesses hoping to compete for government contracts in Pennsylvania.
The state Department of General Services on Tuesday said the revenue threshold for the state's small-business contracting program has been raised to $38.5 million — in line with the federal government.
The program was previously limited to small businesses with annual revenue of less than $7 million for building design services, $20 million for construction or procurement of goods and services, and $25 million for information technology goods and services.
The new cap applies across the board for all business types.
The revenue cap was cited at a recent forum held to highlight issues facing small, diverse businesses.
Troy Thompson, a spokesman for the Department of General Services, said it is unknown how many more businesses will be eligible under the higher cap.
But, he added: "We expect to see our largest increase in the IT category."
In order to bid for state contracts, a business must register as a supplier with the commonwealth. It can then start competing for contracting opportunities and pursue third-party small diverse business certification, which is required to be considered a verified small-diverse business in the commonwealth's program.
Small-diverse businesses, or SDBs, are businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans, disabled veterans, individuals with disabilities and members of the LGBT community.
In the 2017-18 fiscal year, small and small-diverse businesses received almost $536.7 million, or 11.3 percent of state contract dollars. That was up from $406 million in 2016-17.
