Contract conference policies questioned

Michelle Swafford

Wednesday, June 2, 2004 | 10:44 a.m.

The Army's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization is holding a national procurement conference in Las Vegas today and Thursday -- startling local small business advocates who weren't informed of the event and who don't understand why businesses have to pay to attend.

The conference is to help small businesses learn how to contract with the government in the effort to rebuild Iraq.

Several Nevada small business advocates said they were unaware of the conference and are surprised by the registration cost of $150 per attendee, though that cost is not considered prohibitive.

The conference is being held at Caesars Palace and taxpayers are not paying for it, said Maj. James Blanco, assistant director of the Army's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization.

He said media covering the event and all registrants pay the fee to cover the cost of the meeting rooms, lunch and other conference-associated costs.

"It's very important for us to keep the costs down for small businesses," Blanco said. "We're very sensitive to costs and $150 isn't very expensive."

Las Vegas Sun editors canceled plans for the newspaper to cover the conference because of the fee, saying they object to paying to cover a government news event.

Las Vegas was chosen as the place to hold the conference because the cost was one-third less than comparable cities, Blanco said.

The conference offers small business owners the opportunity to hear from military contracting experts and meet with the six larger companies that were awarded construction contracts.

There is $6 billion worth of awarded non-construction contracts and $5 billion worth of awarded construction contracts for Iraq. Those contracts are part of $18.4 billion in total contracts that will be awarded to large and small businesses to rebuild Iraq.

Each Iraqi reconstruction contract requires that between 10 percent and 23 percent of the total contract value be awarded to small businesses through subcontract work.

Michael Graham, deputy state director of the Nevada Small Business Development Center, said his office was unaware of the conference and that had it known of the event, he would have helped the Army to find a place to hold the conference for less money.

The Nevada Small Business Development Center is a state agency that counsels small businesses and receives some funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

"I'm surprised that there's a fee for that when there's a continuous human cry of how to get small business connected with government," he said. "If a person can walk out of there with a contract, $150 is nothing, but obviously there's no guarantees."

Any small business owner that feels prepared to contract with the Army should consider attending the conference, but those who don't feel ready should consider training workshops that educate small business owners on the process of government contracting, Graham said.

The Nevada Small Business Development Center holds various free seminars each month on contracting topics, he said.

Officials at the Nevada Microenterprise Initiative, a state counseling agency that also receives Small Business Administration funding, said they were not aware of the Iraq conference. They said that had they known about it, they would have helped promote it.

Anna Siefert, operations manager of the initiative, said she was surprised that she hadn't heard about the conference and that the Army is charging any fee to attend.

"I don't think there should be a registration fee," Siefert said. "They are going to charge people for something that they (Army contractors) have to do. That's ridiculous."

Siefert said federal agencies and their large contractors are required to unbundle large contracts to enable small businesses to bid on portions of the contracts as subcontractors.

The Nevada District office of the Small Business Administration found about the conference on Friday through other people, not from the Army, said Hank Ramirez, SBA procurement center representative for Nevada, Arizona and Los Angeles.

Ramirez said he sent out faxes and e-mails Friday to inform as many small businesses as he could, but he's not sure how many Las Vegas Valley small business owners will attend on short notice.

He added that procurement events are typically free, which could deter some small businesses from attending the Army's conference.

For more information about the conference or the topics discussed, visit www.sellingtoarmy.com.