Adeptus Solutions

Small Business Administration (SBA) HUBZone Certified Company

 

The HUBZone program encourages economic development in historically underutilized business zones. The federal government's goal is to award three percent of all prime and subcontracting dollars to businesses in the HUBZone program each year.

 

Types of HUBZone contracts

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As the contracting officer, you’re responsible for determining the type of contract to use when awarding to a HUBZone business. There are several kinds of contracts you can use:

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• A competitive HUBZone set-aside contract can be awarded if the contracting officer has a reasonable expectation that at least two responsible HUBZone small businesses will submit offers and that the resulting contract can be awarded at a fair market price. You can also create set-asides for specific orders within Multiple Award Contracts that were awarded through full and open competition.

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• A sole-source HUBZone contract can be awarded if the contracting officer doesn’t have a reasonable expectation that two or more qualified HUBZone small businesses will submit offers, determines that the qualified HUBZone small business is responsible, and determines that the contract can be awarded at a fair price. The government estimate cannot exceed $7.5 million for manufacturing requirements or $4 million for all other requirements.

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• A full and open competition contract can be awarded with a price evaluation preference for HUBZone small businesses. The offer of a HUBZone small business must be considered lower than the offer of a non-HUBZone/non-small business, provided that the offer of the HUBZone small business is not more than 10 percent higher.

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When contracts are worth $150,000 or less, they are automatically set-aside for small businesses. If possible, you can choose to to set it aside specifically for businesses in socio-economic programs like HUBZone.

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You also must set aside contracts worth more than $150,000  — as long as you have a reasonable expectation that at least two small businesses will submit bids.

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Both the SBA’s regulations and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) require you to consider socio-economic programs first for set-aside or sole-source contracts worth more than $150,000. There is no order of preference among the programs.

You must document the rationale you used to make your decision in the contract file. Include information about your research and documentation of the winning contractor’s certification in the System for Award Management.

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Benefits of the Program

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• ​Contracting officer can award a contract in approximately 8 days.

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• Participants can receive sole-source contracts, up to a ceiling of $4 million for goods and services and $7.5 million for manufacturing. ​

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Adeptus Solutions can assist you in navigating the acquisition development strategy as you work with your agency’s Contracting Officer or Contracting Specialist. Contact us for more information on this process.

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