Procurement Compliance Bulletin 12.14.2022

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

Procurement Compliance Bulletin

12.14.2022

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A Special Holiday Message

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Season's Greetings to all and a special message to the Small Business Reserve (SBR), Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and Veteran-Owned Small Business Enterprise (VSBE) agency liaison officers. Your presence is a present to the small, minority, women and veteran entrepreneurs in our community. Working directly with your Secretary, Deputy Secretary, or head of  procurement, you play a pivotal role. You are the bridge to helping these vendors identify potential business opportunities with your agencies. By coordinating outreach efforts, reviewing contracting procedures to ensure compliance, assisting in the resolution of contracting issues, and submitting required program reports or information, you ensure the success of these important socioeconomic programs as we strive to achieve 15% designated spend through the SBR Program, a 29% aspirational goal for the MBE Program and a 1% aspirational goal for the VSBE Program. Together, with support from our team at the Governor’s Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs, let's make 2023 the best year to date for SBR, MBE, and VSBE vendor participation. They are counting on all of us!

Please take a few minutes and review the regulations that impact your critical role:


MBE Program

FY2022 Annual Reporting

Thank you to the 67 agencies that have submitted their FY2022 Annual Report data. We are actively reviewing and validating the information submitted. If our office has reached out to you concerning your submission, please be sure to respond in a timely manner.  

The FY22 MBE Annual Report was due on September 30th and should contain data from July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022. Annual report templates and instructions are still available in the MBE Reporting Toolkit. If you have not submitted this data, please contact our office to provide an update or submit your report.

 

FY2023 Quarterly Reporting

As mentioned during our December Compliance Call, the submission of the 2nd Quarter MBE Report is very important. Submitting this report will help your agency assess its performance at the mid-year mark, which will prepare you for a strong 3rd and 4th Quarter. In addition, since quarterly reports are cumulative, when the time comes to complete your Annual Report, a portion of your work will already be complete.

If you have any questions pertaining to the 2nd Quarter MBE Report, feel free to submit them via email and/or contact us to schedule a meeting. You will find our email addresses listed below.

Quarterly Report instructions and templates are available in the MBE Reporting Toolkit.  

For questions about the MBE Program, or to be added to the
MBE Liaison Training calendar invitations, email
Nichelle Johnson at nichelle.johnson1@maryland.gov or
Karen Reyes at karen.reyes@maryland.gov


SBR Program 

FY2023 Quarterly Reporting

FY2023 1st Quarter SBR Reports (past due)

Thank you to the 19 SBR agencies/departments that have submitted their FY2023 1st Quarter SBR Reports!

With the program having 68 SBR agencies/departments, this submission rate totals 28%. Note that if your 1st Quarter SBR Report has not yet been submitted, be certain to send it in as soon as possible.

 

FY2023 2nd Quarter Reports due January 30, 2023

SBR Quarterly report data is cumulative. The Second Quarter report covers July 1, 2022 - December 31, 2022 and is due no later than 30 days following the quarter being reported. Quarterly Report instructions and templates are available in the SBR Reporting Toolkit. 

As mentioned during our December Compliance Call, the submission of the 2nd Quarter SBR Report is very important. Submitting this report will help your agency assess its performance at the mid-year mark, which will prepare you for a strong 3rd and 4th Quarter. In addition, since quarterly reports are cumulative, when the time comes to complete your Annual Report, a portion of your work will already be completed.

If you have any questions pertaining to the Quarterly SBR Report(s), feel free to submit them via email and/or contact us to schedule a meeting. You will find our email addresses listed below.

For any questions about the SBR Program, Reports, or to be added to the
SBR Liaison Training calendar invitations, email
Lisa Mitchell Sennaar at lisa.sennaar@maryland.gov or
Tanita Johnson at tanita.johnson1@maryland.gov


VSBE Program

New VSBE Outreach Form Coming Soon!

A new reporting requirement will take effect with the FY2023 reporting period, but the time to prepare is now. Per COMAR 21.11.14.06, each VSBE participating agency must report their outreach efforts to VSBE prime and VSBE subcontracts over  the fiscal year. What is your agency's outreach strategy? The new form will be made available  in January so you can be prepared to provide this information as part of your annual reporting requirements.   

 

FY2022 Annual Reporting Corrections

VSBE Annual Report corrections requests will continue to go out this week, so please make sure your responses are timely.  The VSBE Annual Report was due October 1st and should contain data from July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2022. If your agency has not yet reported, please do so immediately or contact the VSBE Compliance Manager with a status update. 

For any questions regarding the VSBE Program, or to be added to the
VSBE Liaison Training calendar invitations, email
 Danielle Davis at danielle.davis2@maryland.gov.

 

Confirmation of VSBE Program Certification

eMMA is the exclusive platform to use when verifying that a veteran vendor is certified in the state’s VSBE Program (the “VSBE Certification #” field must be populated and the “VSBE Expiration Date” must be valid). Please make sure you have verified that all VSBE's on current contracts are certified in eMMA. Failure to do so, will result in your agency having to manually extract that data from your FY2023 reports, as no awards or payments can be counted to veteran firms not in the VSBE program on statewide goals.

If you have any questions or concerns when verifying VSBE Program certification,
please call or email Danielle Davis at danielle.davis2@maryland.gov.


Quarterly Compliance Call 

The next Compliance Call is scheduled for April 13, 2023 from 10 am  to 12 noon. A calendar invite will be sent soon.

GOSBA hosts a compliance call each quarter to address issues impacting how the SBR, MBE, and VSBE procurement programs are implemented by participating state agencies and departments. Topics for discussion come from you, our liaisons and procurement officers. We discuss them in an open and transparent forum so we can all learn from one another. 

If you have suggested topics to be covered in our April 2023 call, please email them no later than March 30th to compliance.gosba@maryland.gov.

If you missed our December call, please find a summary of the topics covered HERE, in the latest Compliance Library. You may also find it in the SBRMBE or VSBE Reporting Toolkits.

For questions about the compliance call, please email lisa.sennaar@maryland.gov or nichelle.johnson1@maryland.gov.

If you do not wish to attend any upcoming meetings, simply decline the meeting invitation.


Ahead in 2023...

SAVE THESE DATES:

SBR/MBE/VSBE Liaison Trainings: 
February 9, 2023 (virtual)
May 4, 2023 (virtual)

Quarterly Compliance Calls:
April 13, 2023 
June 1, 2023