Procurement Compliance Bulletin 8.7.2020

Governor’s Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs sent this bulletin at 08/07/2020 12:51 PM EDT

Governor's Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs

Procurement Compliance Bulletin

Inside this issue:

A Message From GOSBA
FY2021 Procurement Forecast
MBE Program News
SBR Program News
VSBE Program News
GOSBA Compliance Updates

08.07.2020

A Message from GOSBA

The Governor’s Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs regularly encourages agencies to conduct outreach events as a way to engage the MBE/SBR/VSBE community. In this age of uncertainty and out of an abundance of caution, there are still some restrictions in place for public gatherings. During this time, it is even more important to engage small, minority, disadvantaged, women, and veteran-owned businesses. Many state agencies are choosing to conduct virtual events in order to accomplish procurement tasks, such as Pre-bid Conferences, and are seeking other ways to maintain communication with vendors/businesses. There are a variety of virtual platform options such as Cisco WebEx, GoToWebinar, Microsoft Teams, or Vimeo Livestream. There is also a livestream function to Google Meet, which is already available to state employees on the Google platform. It is important to note that none of these platforms are particularly endorsed by the state and the usage of these platforms should be approved by DoIT. Our office is preparing to move our outreach program to a virtual platform, but for now, business owners may head to our website for an overview on the Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), Small Business Reserve (SBR) and Veteran-owned Small Business Enterprise (VSBE) certification and resources. No matter which option you choose, it is essential that you make yourself well acquainted with all of the functions/features of the platform, consider ADA Compliance, and choose the best option for the event type and audience. Virtual events are quickly becoming our new norm, so we must develop some new skills in order to continue the important work we do. We can all use a little help. Here's a great article that can help make the job easier.

How to Run Effective Virtual Meetings - Communicating Well With Technology

Procurement Forecast

FY2021 Procurement Forecast is Past Due

Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford asked for an update on access to the state's 2021 Procurement Forecast at a recent BPW meeting. Each agency/department's forecast is published online and serves as an important tool for the small, minority, women, and veteran business community.

If you have not submitted your agency's forecast (which was due on June 30, 2020), please do so as soon as possible. As Governor Hogan implements the Roadmap to Recovery plan, state-funded contracting opportunities will be vital to the recovery of the small business community.

The FY2021 Procurement Forecast Instructions and Template are located in both the MBE Reporting Toolkit and the SBR Reporting Toolkit. Although the template and instructions are available in both toolkits, agencies need only submit one procurement forecast.

Procurement Forecasts should be submitted via email in EXCEL FORMAT to:

compliance.gosba@maryland.gov

If you have any questions, contact
Lisa Mitchell Sennaar at lisa.sennaar@maryland.gov

MBE Program

New Subgoals Became Effective August 1, 2020

As legislatively-mandated, GOSBA has established new subgoals for the MBE Program. The new subgoals were implemented on August 1, 2020. The updated subgoal worksheet is available on the Office of State Procurement site: https://procurement.maryland.gov/prg-forms/

The FY2020 MBE Annual Report is due September 30th

The FY2020 MBE Annual Report must be completed and submitted on or before September 30, 2020.

To be compliant, your agency must submit the following documents:

Form 1 & 2 Report as an EXCEL sheet and the signed signature page
MBE Contracts Inventory Report as an EXCEL sheet
Data entry in the Form 3 Web Portal (Contact GOSBA for access issues) OR import of the Form 3 Data Template
A completed and signed Summary Sheet
All backup documentation from both FMIS and non-FMIS users as EXCEL sheets

The 2020 report templates, a fill-in summary template, and the 2020 MBE Reporting Manual are now live on the GOSBA website in the MBE Reporting Toolkit.

GOSBA MBE Reporting Toolkit

The documentation listed above is mandatory and must be submitted to mbereports.gosba@maryland.gov

Please give the proper attention to these mandatory reports by following the instructions carefully and providing complete responses in the correct format.

If you have any questions, please contact the MBE Compliance Manager - Nichelle Johnson
nichelle.johnson1@maryland.gov or 410-697-9605

FY2021 MBE Strategic Plan is Past Due

The FY2021 MBE Strategic Plan was due on June 30, 2020. If you have not submitted your agency's report, please do so as soon as possible.

The FY2021 Strategic Plan template is available in the MBE Reporting Toolkit. Please do not use prior year templates. The Strategic Plan asks a series of questions which are designed to add structure and detail to your agency's MBE inclusion/expansion strategy. Each plan should be unique and based on projected purchases for the upcoming fiscal year with the intention to maximize the number of MBEs engaged in the procurement/purchasing process.

Plans should be labeled "FY2021 MBE Strategic Plan" and submitted via email to:
compliance.gosba@maryland.gov

As we continue to reopen the state, please give the proper attention to this mandatory report. You can have a direct impact on the small business community by providing thorough and detailed responses, following the instructions carefully, and submitting the report in the correct format.

SBR Program

The FY2020 SBR Annual Report is due September 30, 2020

The FY2020 SBR Annual Report must be completed and submitted on or before September 30, 2020.

Please submit the following documents:

Completed FY2020 SBR Annual Report Template with back up data from both FMIS and non FMIS users in excel format
Completed and signed Summary Page in pdf format

The FY2020 Report template, agency example, GAD list and the 2020 SBR Annual Reporting Instructions are now live on the GOSBA website in the SBR Reporting Toolkit.

SBR Reporting Toolkit

The documentation listed above is mandatory and must be submitted to the sbrreports.gosba@maryland.gov email box.

Please give the proper attention to this mandatory report by following the instructions carefully and providing complete responses in the correct format.

If you have any questions, please contact the SBR Compliance Manager - Lisa Mitchell Sennaar
lisa.sennaar@maryland.gov or 410-508-8089.

FY2021 SBR Strategic Plan is Past Due

The FY2021 SBR Strategic Plan was due on June 30, 2020. If you have not submitted your agency's report, please do so as soon as possible.

The FY2021 Strategic Plan template is available in the SBR Reporting Toolkit. The Strategic Plan asks a series of questions which are designed to add structure and detail to your agency's SBR inclusion/expansion strategy. Each plan should be unique and based on projected purchases for the upcoming fiscal year with an eye toward increasing the number of SBRs engaged in the procurement/purchasing process.

Plans should be labeled "FY2021 SBR Strategic Plan" and submitted via email to:
compliance.gosba@maryland.gov

VSBE Program

The VSBE Annual Report is due October 1, 2020.

Beginning in FY2019, the Governor's Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs became responsible for compiling the data for the VSBE Annual Report. The FY2020 VSBE Annual Report must be completed and submitted by October 1, 2020.

Agencies that report for the MBE Program are expected to report for the VSBE Program unless explicitly stated otherwise.

The FY2020 VSBE report template and reporting manual are now live on the GOSBA website in the NEW VSBE Reporting Toolkit!

VSBE Reporting Toolkit

The FY2020 VSBE Utilization Data Template must be completed and submitted in EXCEL
format by email to
vsbereports.gosba@maryland.gov.

Questions or issues should be directed to Nichelle Johnson, MBE Compliance Manager, at nichelle.johnson1@maryland.gov or 410-697-9605.

Compliance & Policy Update

July Compliance Call

On July 29, 2020, GOSBA hosted our bi-monthly Compliance Call. Thank you to all of our participants and to those who submitted questions. We believe we covered some very important topics, including the new MBE Subgoals, that will help us ensure we remain compliant with state procurement regulations and policies.

For those who were unable to join us, please click HERE to see the questions and responses in our Compliance Call Library. You may also access this document in the MBE and SBR Toolkits.

Upcoming September 9, 2020 Compliance Call

The purpose of this conference call is to address issues impacting the SBR, MBE, and VSBE procurement programs in an open and transparent forum.

Some of the topics to be discussed on the next call include:

MBE / VSBE Waivers (Supporting Documentation)
No VSBE Liaisons, so who reports your VSBE data?
Verification of a company's SBR Certification

To participate in the call, please register using the link provided below. You will receive a Conference Call invitation with call in details. A link to questions and the answers provided during the call will be added to our website and the next bulletin for those who were unable to join the call.

Wednesday, September 9, 2020
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Via Google Hangouts Meet
Click the link below to register for the Compliance Call

We would like to address specific questions that you, our Agency stakeholders, are asking. Please submit questions 14 days in advance (that's August 26, 2020) to: