FY2008 Contracting Misses Goal for Contracting with Women-Owned Small Businesses by Over Twelve Billion Dollars
Women-Owned Small Businesses Suffer Largest Federal Contracting Opportunity Loss in HistoryAfter more than a decade of failure to meet federal contracting goals with women, and nearly nine years of delay in the implementation of the Women’s Procurement Program, the recently released FY2008 federal spending report shows that women-owned small businesses suffered the greatest opportunity loss in history. FY2008 federal spending with women missed the paltry five percent goal for spending with women by twenty-two percent representing a shortfall of over $12 Billion in just one year.
“Federal spending increased over $300 Billion between 2001 and 2008, while the federal contracts secured by women-owned firms have seen shortfall after shortfall,” said Margot Dorfman, CEO of the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce. “And now, with the release of the FY 2008 data, we find that women-owned businesses lost over $12 Billion of opportunity in FY2008 as the federal government failed to meet the remarkably low goal of five-percent for contracting with women-owned small businesses. For more than ten years, the federal government has failed to meet their own goal. And for more than nine years, the Small Business Administration has failed to implement the Women’s Procurement Program which was established by Congress to assist federal agencies to overcome this tragic shortcoming,” added Dorfman.
>>Read the press release (PDF)
>>Read the report (PDF)