Issues in Contracting with Small Minority Businesses

摘要

The focus of this investigation was to identify issues central to increasing the involvement of small minority businesses (MBs) in federal or prime contracts with the Department of Energy (DOE), as a foundation for designing a program to assist buyers of contracted goods and services. The approach to determining issues involved interviewing the owners of 15 MBs, representing a range of businesses, and buyers and purchasing officers from three large DOE prime contractors. The interviewees identified issues related to positive working relationships and rated a predetermined set of 27 potential MB-DOE problems regarding their existence and criticalness. The issues identified by MBs were of two broad types. The predominant issues and barriers were associated with their being small businesses. Secondary issues reflected the disadvantaged status of the business (woman and/or minority-owned). (ERA citation 11:029109)