|
OSDBU Menu
|
 |
Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization
Small Business Program Policy Manual
Introduction
A. GENERAL
To be eligible for set-aside contracts and other assistance programs available to small businesses, a concern must be small as defined in the standards established by the Small Business Administration (SBA). For Federal procurement purposes, a small business is a concern, including its affiliates, which is organized for profit, independently owned and operated, not dominant in the field of operation in which it is bidding on Government contracts. It must qualify according to the industry criteria in the SBA size standard regulations, 13 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 121. The SBA Administrator establishes standards for classifying small businesses and has the sole authority to determine a firm's size status.
B. CLASSIFYING REQUIREMENTS
Each HHS solicitation shall contain the appropriate North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and corresponding small business size standard for that requirement, whether or not the solicitation is set aside for small business (refer to the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 19.3).
Determining the NAICS Code
The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) replaced the U.S. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. NAICS was developed jointly by the U.S., Canada and Mexico to provide new comparability in statistics about business activity throughout North America. For size standard purposes, requirements are classified in the industry whose definition best describes the principal nature of the product or service being acquired.
The online NAICS manual includes definitions for each industry, tables showing correspondence between NAICS and SICs, and a comprehensive index--features also available at http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html.
A product or service should be classified in only one industry. When acquiring a product or service that could be classified in two or more industries with different NAICS codes and size standards, the Contracting Office (CO) should consider which classification would best serve the purposes of the Small Business Act, that is, encourage the greatest number of small business offers. The CO may also apply the NAICS which is dominant in describing the principal purpose of the work involved. This may or may not be the NAICS code for the industry accounting for the greatest percentage of the contract price.
If a solicitation requires more than one item and allows offers to be submitted on any or all of the items, the offeror must meet the size standard for each item it offers to furnish. If a solicitation has more than one item and it requires offers on all or none of the items, an offeror may qualify as a small business by meeting the size standard for the item accounting for the greatest percentage of the total contract price.
The CO should consider previous government requirements’ (purchase orders, contracts, etc.) classifications of the same or similar products or services to determine the appropriate NAICS. Finally, the CO is encouraged to consult the Small Business Specialist prior to finalizing a determination of requirements with multiple NAICS.
Determining the Small Business Size Standard
Size standards are established according to a firm's average number of employees during the preced�ing 12 months or its average annual receipts for the past three fiscal years. A NAICS code will have a size standard expressed in either number of employees or dollars of receipts, but not both. To make a determination of its size, a company must include the employees or receipts of its affiliates.
Once the NAICS code has been established, the corresponding small business size standard can be found by consulting the SBA size standard regulations published in 13 CFR Part 121 or FAR Subpart 19.102.
C. SMALL BUSINESS SPECIALIST REVIEW
The CO shall include the appropriate NAICS code and corresponding dollars and employee number on the HHS Small Business Review Form (Form 653) and submit the OPDIV Small Business Specialist (SBS) concurrence. If the SBS concurs or has questions regarding the NAICS or corresponding information, the CO will be notified within five (5) business days of receipt of the Form 653. You may log onto the OSDBU “Acquisition Corner” to download the most recent version of the Form 653 (http://www.hhs.gov/osdbu/forms.html).
|
Download Reader 
