GAO Recommends Improvements to Mentor-Protege Program

April 20, 2017

27 Percent Of DoD Mentor-Protege Agreements Are Deficient, GAO Says

Source: SmallGovCon, Steven Koprince, April 13, 2017

The GAO estimates that 27 percent of DoD mentor-protege agreements are deficient.

In a comprehensive new report, the GAO says that many active DoD mentor-protege agreements are missing basic (and necessary) information, like the protege’s primary NAICS code. Also missing, in some cases: the parties’ signatures.

The GAO’s report, titled “Small Business Contracting: DOD Should Take Actions to Ensure That Its Pilot Mentor-Protege Program Enhances the Capabilities of Protege Firms,” begins with an excellent background on the history of the DoD mentor-protege program, and the legal relationship between the DoD program and SBA’s new All Small Mentor-Protege Program (spoiler alert: there isn’t one; the two programs are separate and independent). The GAO then explains the many required elements of a DoD mentor-protege agreement, such as an assessment of the protege’s needs, a description of the specific assistance the mentor will provide to the protege, and so on.

However, many of the active DoD mentor-protege agreements are missing some of the required elements. GAO writes:

Our review of a randomly selected probability sample of 44 of the 78 total active DOD mentor-protege agreements in place as of June 2016 found that a number of these agreements were missing required elements. Specifically, based on our review, we estimate that 27 percent of the agreements did not address all required elementsREAD MORE….

Contact your nearest PTAC to learn about mentor-protege agreements and government contracting.

 

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