AFCEC shattering goals for small business partnerships

  • Published
  • By Shannon Carabajal
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  Efforts in making partnering with small business contractors a priority are paying off at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, the service's forward operating agency responsible for providing responsive, flexible full-spectrum installation engineering services.

Through the third quarter of fiscal 2014, the agency has obligated 48.65 percent to small business prime contractors at its San Antonio location and 49.34 percent at its Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., detachment. The obligations total more than $135.9 million.

This far exceeds the service's annual goal of 22.5 percent to small businesses and the agency's own internal goals of 37.5 percent (San Antonio) and 31.62 percent (Tyndall AFB detachment).

"We heavily rely on our small business partners' expertise, responsive services and innovative solutions to execute our global construction, housing, environmental, real property, energy, operations and readiness programs," said Joe Sciabica, AFCEC director. "We couldn't succeed without them."

The agency continually reaches out to small businesses, attending up to eight small business conferences annually and regularly hosting and participating in meetings and teleconferences, said Tammy O'Neill, enterprise procurement division deputy with AFCEC's Planning and Integration Directorate.

The agency also plans to participate in next month's 2014 Small Business Market Research Fair, sponsored by the Society of American Military Engineers, in San Antonio.
"We try to support as many small business conferences and market research events as possible so we can talk about future contract opportunities and help small businesses understand how they can work with AFCEC," O'Neill said.

In addition to outreach efforts, AFCEC uses the federal government's procurement website, www.FedBizOpps.gov, to conduct market intelligence research to determine if a small business market exists that can successfully deliver a service or solution needed.

"When we have a requirement, including those for our large, multi-million dollar (indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity) contracts, we post a sources sought or request for information, or RFI, on the website for industry to answer. Based on the analysis of the responses received, we can determine whether there is a small business market that can meet those requirements. Our entire acquisition strategy is based on that," she said.

There are many opportunities for small businesses to partner with AFCEC.

With few exceptions, source selections - the process of evaluating a competitive bid or proposal to enter into a government procurement contract - are either small business set-asides or have partial set-asides. Additionally, the agency has high small business subcontracting goals, said Mary Urey, director of small business programs for the Air Force Installation Contracting Agency's Joint Base San Antonio operating location.

Small businesses are encouraged to proactively seek ways to partner with AFCEC.

"Get your small business registered on www.FedBizOpps.gov, search on the keyword 'AFCEC' and respond to (AFCEC's) sources sought and RFIs if you have the sought-after capability," O'Neill said. "That lets us know that there are small businesses out there that can meet our requirements."

For more information about registering a small business for government contracting, including what qualifies as a small business, visit http://www.sba.gov/content/register-government-contracting.

For more information about AFCEC small business partnering opportunities, visit http://www.afcec.lackland.af.mil/contracting/business.asp.