Government Contracting and Procurement

RESOURCES FOR GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS

The web site for the federal acquisition community and the government's business partners. Here you can find links to important acquisition systems such as the Catalog for Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA), Central Contractor Registration (CCR), Excluded Parties List System, Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (eSRS), Federal Business Opportunities, Federal Agency Registration, Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), System for Award Management, Small Business Administration (SBA), VETBIZ.gov, Wage Determinations Online, and more.

This free site will provide you with direct access to Defense and Federal specifications and standards available in the official DoD repository, the ASSIST database.

To do business with most government agencies, you must register with CCR. Registration can be done online at this site. There's an easy-to-follow handbook as well as other useful links and information for contractors, grantees (for government grants), small businesses, and international businesses.

For some ridiculous reason, Congressional Research Reports are not generally available to the public. But you can access some of them through various sites, including this one. Take a look at some of the collections of reports and search for relevant reports using terms such as "acquisition," "R&D" "contracts," "grants," etc.

This site from the Small Business Administration begins with the basics: determining if you are a small business, registering your business and getting a DUNS number, business sizes, and industry codes. You can then go on to learn about about working with the government, and government contracting opportunities.

The Defense Acquition University is an organization established by Congress in 1990 to consolidate and integrate education and training for the Defense Acquisition Workforce. This site also has a nice listing of various acquisition-related links.

Various procurement reports and statistics by fiscal year, as well as standard tabulations that can be downloaded.

Links to all federal agency procurement sites on the Web. Or, visit my Doing Business With... page for links to procurement sites of the major government agencies.

This site is designated as the single source for federal government procurement opportunities that exceed $25,000. If you are interested in bidding on government contracts, you can sign up to automatically receive procurement information. You can also search procurements by solicitation number, date, classification code, and agency for both active or archived solicitations.

This site from About.com provides a nice overview of government contracting. There are also useful links on small business topics, Government 101, and government grants.

This data system contains information on government contracts whose estimated value is $3,000 or more, including contract modifications. You can do searches and get reports for use in geographical and market analysis. The FPDC does not include data on government grants.

This site contains the following types of information on federal spending for each state: top 10 agencies awarding contracts in each state, top 10 contractors awarded federal prime contracts in each state, top 10 small businesses awarded federal prime contracts in each state, and top 10 metropolitan areas awarded federal contracts in each state. Similar information is provided for federal grants. And if you go to the "Archives," you can also find Top 10 contractors by SIC code as well as useful tips and information.

An alphabetical glossary.

Scroll down to the "Resources" section to find links to business and procurement information.

Under the GSA Schedules (also referred to as Multiple Award Schedules and Federal Supply Schedules) Program, GSA establishes long-term, government-wide contracts with commercial firms to provide the government with access to millions of commercial services and products. GSA awards contracts to companies offering commercial items, at fair and reasonable prices, that fall within the generic descriptions in GSA Schedule Solicitations. At this site, you can get information about working with the GSA and responding to GSA solicitations. You can also access a variety of related resources, tools and training programs to help you do business with GSA.

NAGC is an organization of business owners engaged or interested in contracts with government, universities and private corporations. The association works to expand contracting opportunities for small businesses and those new to the procurement process. It provides training, services and networking opportunities to get your business involved in procurement with government at all levels.

PPIRS is a web-based application that allows the retrieval of contractor past performance information. If you are a government contractor, see the FAQ page to find out how to access the system.

Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) and commercial sites, acquisition and procurement regulations, procurement reference sites, business assistance, and electronic commerce resources.

This is Florida Atlantic University's Public Procurement Research Center. It contains info on contracting organizations and business opportunities, state government procurement offices, cooperating purchasing, international public procurement offices, buying green, acquisition links, laws and regulations, professional associations, best practices, and much more. Lots of info, all in one place!

PSC is the national trade association representing for-profit professional and technical services contractors doing business with the federal government, commercial and international markets.

The SBA's SUB-Net database is a listing of subcontracting solicitations and opportunities posted by large prime contractors and other non-federal agencies. SUB-Net has been used by state and local governments, non-profit organizaitons, colleges and universities, and foreign governments to post solicitations and identify small businesses.

Here you can find data about the various types of government contracts and subcontracts, government grants and subgrants, government loans, and other types of government expenditures across and within individual agencies. For each contract and grant award, you can find out: the name of the firm or organization receiving the award; the amount of the award; information on the award including transaction type and funding agency; and the location of the entity receiving the award..

When your business delivers products or services under a government contract, you must adhere to a variety of regulations that range from qualifying for the work in the first place, to reporting your activities on a regular basis after a contract is signed. You also can take advantage of several programs designed to promote small businesses. On this page of the SBA's website, there are links to information on small business certifications and audiences, small business innovation research, contracting support, the contracting rulebook, and the service contracting inventory.