GovernmentExecutive.com

A senior official with the Small Business Administration has been tapped for the top acquisition policy job at the General Services Administration.

Emily Murphy, who serves as the senior adviser in SBA's Office of Government Contracting and Business Development, on Monday accepted GSA Administrator Stephen Perry's appointment to the position of chief acquisition officer, according to a GSA acquisition official.

Murphy has served as SBA's alternate to the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, the official body of procurement executives that serves as a forum for monitoring the federal acquisition system. SBA exerts significant influence over acquisition policies toward small businesses. Murphy has served as a spokeswoman for the Bush administration's efforts to drive more government contracts to those companies. "President Bush has made a commitment to America's small business owners," she said last year when announcing that the federal government had awarded $65.5 billion in prime contracts to small businesses in fiscal 2003.

But critics have questioned the accuracy of small business contracting data, as well as claims that the companies really are getting the share the government claims. A study by the Center for Public Integrity in Washington found that, in the past six years, more than $47 billion in Defense Department contracts meant for small businesses have gone to large companies.

"We can't monitor each and every contract," Murphy said in an interview with Fortune magazine last year. The article cited big business lobbying efforts and bureaucratic loopholes as reasons why large Defense contractors can sometimes classify themselves as small business. "Changes do need to be made, but the regulatory process can take six months to a couple of years," she said.

SBA tried to improve the accuracy of data collected for the fiscal 2003 contracting report, Murphy said. "We went out to the agencies and emphasized [the need for] a very careful scrub of their data," she said in an interview with Set-Aside Alert, a government contract information service for small and minority- and women-owned businesses.

The position of chief acquisition officer at GSA was created in June as part of the agency's "Get it Right" program, an effort to train employees on proper contracting procedures in the wake of procurement abuses by one of GSA's divisions, the Federal Technology Service. The position was held most recently by GSA's former chief of staff, Karl Reichelt, who served in an acting capacity.

GSA hadn't issued an official announcement of Murphy's appointment at the time of publication. Murphy couldn't be reached for comment.

-- Kimberly Palmer contributed to this report.

COMMENTS

• I wonder what Ms Murphy's position will be in the all-out battle between SBA and GSA on Small Business set-asides and GSA contracts? In a pending GAO protest the SBA has issued a legal opinion that the General Services Administration (GSA) must adhere to the statutory small business set aside rules for contracts between $3,000 and $100,000. GSA, as well as many other federal agencies, believe that small business set asides and the small business programs set forth in federal statutes and regulations do not apply when a procuring agency utilizes the GSA Schedule program. Not so, says the SBA General Counsel. In summary, SBA states "the (set-aside) statutory provision creates a mandatory small business reservation for acquisitions valued below $100,000" (and in some instances up to $250,000) and further confirmed that "there is nothing in statute or GAO ruling indicating that a GSA Schedule contract should or can take priority over this statutory mandated small business reservation requirement." SBA also affirmed that, "this (set-aside) statute does not exempt GSA Schedule awards or orders issued pursuant to the Schedule contract from the Small Business Act." The GAO has not yet ruled on the protest. Suzanne Waters Posted November 26, 2007 11:38 AM
• Congratulations to MS Murphy and may she have success in her new position. I hope as the the new chief, she can start the process at GSA and not expect the agencies to pick up the shortfall in contracting with small businesses. I like others that follow small business contracts do not believe the numbers that have been published by the SBA. Our doubts have been supported by every audit that has been conducted in this reporting system. While all the contracts carry a requirement to have small business involvement, rarely are these provisions enforced. The tried and proven way to get around the small business set aside is to have a small company bid and then have a large company take it over. Additionally, the time and expense involved for a small business to get on the schedule or get a GSA contract is beyond the resource capability. The time frame is usually stated as less than 30 days; however when you review the time it has taken to qualify for the Travel there is a completely different appearance. Ever wonder what percentage of the GSA travel and relocation contracts were held by large companies? This is a difficult number to determine. I would like to pose a challenge to her to determine this number as one of her first priority items. There are a lot of small business owners in this field that are hurting for business due to the new security rules and reduction of travel. Les Oden Posted January 27, 2005 11:36 AM