The
U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business
Utilization, which operates under the Small Business Act, expands contracting
opportunities for small businesses. By law, every federal agency must establish
an OSDBU within its organization to promote the use of small and
small-disadvantaged businesses in agency contracting programs. During
fiscal year 2008, the department spent approximately $2.6 billion in contracts,
awarding approximately $1.6 billion to small businesses. For this reason, OSDBU
believes that at Interior small business is big business. For
fiscal year 2009, OSDBU is again employing a critical tool to reach out to some
of these small businesses by conducting the first of several regional workshops.
Beginning in the Southeast region, it plans to conduct a Small Business
Outreach Workshop at the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center in Atlanta, Ga. OSDBU
will kick off the Feb. 10-11 event with an in-house training workshop for Interior’s
small-business specialists, contracting officers and program managers from the Southeast
region. The first-day workshop will cover the subcontracting program and
responsibilities of prime contractors, size-standard requirements and strategic
sourcing, fostering objectives for day two. On
the second day, OSDBU will host small businesses at an outreach workshop that
will focus on contracting opportunities with Interior. There these businesses will
be able to share their perspectives on trends and conditions affecting the
economy for the purpose of forming joint and team ventures. OSDBU
plans to hold additional small-business training/outreach workshops in Oregon, Alaska, Colorado, New Mexico and
Massachusetts during the remainder of fiscal year 2009.
By focusing on the needs of its customers, OSDBU continues to make the public
aware of contracting opportunities with Interior. For more information
about the Department’s Small Business Program, please visit www.doi.gov/osdbu or call (202)
208-3493.
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