Procurement Compliance Bulletin
6.26.2024
The hard work and willingness to change that each of our liaisons and agency stakeholders have exemplified in FY2024 has not gone unnoticed. As a state, we know there is more work to be done every day to continue serving the SBR, MBE and VSBE community in invaluable ways. As we look forward to the new fiscal year, we want to acknowledge the impact your daily duties have in the real world.
Impact is not only about the results we see in numbers, but also the influence we are making in our day to day activities that can often be overlooked. Last week our office hosted the Ready, Set, Grow! Procurement Connections Workshops and honored eight SBR, MBE and VSBE vendors who have made successful strides within state contracting. These honorees were nominated from our very own participating agencies who directly or indirectly had an impact on the success of these small business owners. These moments remind us that the work we are not able to see (countless phone calls, emails, and the use of our voices) invokes change by providing guidance, support, and advocacy for our small business owners.
As you prepare for all the new changes and improvements to the SBR, MBE, and VSBE programs in FY2025, we want to encourage you to take the time to recognize those small day-to-day wins. Together we will continue to make incremental progress towards our common goals and celebrate the small wins which are leading us to the bigger and better outcomes that will have a lasting impact.
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The inaugural edition of the Compliance Call Meeting Recap was sent out on June 21, 2024. This new communication tool is intended to keep all of our liaisons and agency stakeholders up-to-date on compliance matters. We understand there are times when meetings can conflict or urgent matters arise, so we want to be sure you have the necessary information at your fingertips. This written recap of the material covered during the compliance call will drop into your mailbox. It is also available on the SBR, MBE and VSBE toolkits. We hope it proves to be a useful tool.
Strategic planning is an organizational management activity that is used to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals, establish agreement around intended outcomes/results, and assess and adjust the unit's direction in response to a changing environment.
All participating units shall submit a Strategic Plan to GOSBA each fiscal year. This mandatory report is submitted as a Google Form in a consolidated format with distinct MBE and SBR sections. Beginning with the FY2025 submission, the Strategic Plan now includes a VSBE section. The form uses logic to navigate through the process. For those agencies that participate in all three programs, a PDF version of the form is available in the MBE, VSBE, and SBR toolkits on GOSBA's website so you can coordinate your answers across multiple contributors. Each agency should only submit one strategic plan.
The Consolidated Strategic Plan FY2025 is available in the SBR Reporting Toolkit, MBE Reporting Toolkit and the VSBE Reporting Toolkit.
The strategic plan is due on June 30, 2024
The Procurement Forecast is provided to the public and serves as a valuable tool for the small, minority, women, and veteran business community. This is a mandatory report for all participating agencies. Starting with FY2025, the forecast will include VSBE goals on any projected or recurring purchases of $50,000 or more to be advertised in FY2025.
Please be sure to give this report the proper attention by following the instructions and being thorough with your responses. Participating units only need to submit one completed forecast that includes all FY2025 projected procurements. Submissions will be uploaded to the Procurement Forecast Database starting on July 1st.
The FY2025 Procurement Forecast instructions and template are available in the SBR Reporting Toolkit, MBE Reporting Toolkit and the VSBE Reporting Toolkit.
The Procurement Forecast is due on June 30, 2024
FY2024 Annual Reporting
The Annual Reporting period begins on July 1,2024
The annual reporting period will commence after the close of FY2024. Annual reports will be due September 30th and should contain data from the start of the fiscal year.
Please remember that liaisons do not submit a 4th quarter report. Instead, all reporting units should work on the FY2024 MBE Annual Report, making sure to use the latest templates. The MBE Annual Report instructions and template will be updated to the MBE Reporting Toolkit by July 1, 2024.
If you have questions pertaining to the MBE Annual Report, feel free to contact MBE Compliance Manager Karen Reyes via email at karen.reyes@maryland.gov with questions or to schedule a meeting.
The Moore-Miller administration is seeking detailed information on contract compliance processes as a way to continue improving the efficiency and success of the MBE Program. The Governor's Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs has been asked to assess the feasibility of collecting active contract compliance data on a quarterly basis.
All participating procurement units are expected to complete the assessment (via Google Forms) by June 30, 2024.
MBE Compliance Manager, Karen Reyes sent out the survey last week on June 17, 2024 to agency liaisons and senior procurement staff. If your agency did not receive this communication be sure to complete the survey by visiting the following link: MBE Active Contract Compliance Data Feasibility Survey
If you have any questions, contact Karen Reyes directly via email at:
karen.reyes@maryland.gov
The House Appropriations Committee has mandated an additional round of surveys in 2024 to address ongoing concerns about attainment of MBE goals, liaison vacancies, and the liaison's role within each agency.
The Agency MBE Participation Attainment and Agency Liaison surveys are being conducted by the Governor's Office of Small, Minority & Women Business Affairs in collaboration with the Department of General Services, Office of State Procurement. A report is due to the Committee in December.
The MBE Survey will launch by July 1st and the Liaison Survey is expected to launch in November.
Attention All VSBE Liaisons
Please be on the lookout for a separate VSBE Liaison Training for the end of July. This will be a deep dive just for the VSBE Program to ensure everyone understands the FY2024 Reporting Updates and the FY2025 changes.
FY2025 VSBE Outreach
In order to continue reaching the many VSBE benchmarks, outreach to the veteran small business community is critical. If our office can be of any assistance in supporting your unit's outreach events, please provide us an email with a flyer and registration information so that we can also push it to our resource partners.
FY2024 VSBE Annual Reporting
It was announced during the Liaison Training earlier this month that GOSBA is making changes to the VSBE data collection for the FY2024 annual report. First, the outreach data will now be collected in a Google Form instead of a fillable PDF document. Secondly, prime and subcontractor payment data will be reported separately. The toolkits, reporting manuals, and supplemental reporting guidance will be updated soon.
To address any questions or concerns about the VSBE certification, outreach, or training assistance, please contact Danielle Davis at danielle.davis2@maryland.gov.
Attention All SBR Liaisons
Please be on the lookout for a separate SBR Liaison Training for the end of July. This will be a deep dive just for the SBR Program to ensure everyone understands the FY2024 Reporting and the changes to FY2025 Reporting.
FY2025 SBR Outreach
Outreach is critical to continue to increase the number of small businesses that get certified and remain certified in the Small Business Reserve Program. If our office can be of any assistance in supporting your unit's outreach events, please provide us an email with a flyer and registration information so that we can also push it to our resource partners.
FY2024 Annual Reporting
The Annual Reporting period begins on July 1,2024
The annual reporting period will commence after the close of FY2024. Annual reports will be due September 30th and should contain data from the start of the fiscal year.
Please remember that liaisons do not submit a 4th quarter report. Instead agencies should work on the FY2024 SBR Annual Report, making sure to use the latest templates. The SBR Annual Report instructions and template will be updated to the SBR Reporting Toolkit by July 1, 2024.
To address any questions or concerns about SBR Reporting, certification, outreach, or training assistance, please email your SBR Compliance Manager Lisa Mitchell Sennaar lisa.sennaar@maryland.gov or Tanita Johnson at tanita.johnson1@maryland.gov to schedule a meeting.
From the clear intentionality of decisions made at bi-weekly BPW meetings to the updated policies and guidelines recently released to the focus on equity in the Governors new State Plan, I believe several things are apparent. We must practice more aggressive goalsetting while still following all established laws, regulations, policies, guidelines, and best practices. This must be done in a transparent way and procurement units should be able to show proof of compliance. As your agency is preparing solicitations and going through the procurement process, here are some key details to remember:
- If your procurements falls into the dollar threshold that requires a PRG, you may not skip OR skimp on this process. Remember to follow guidelines as outlined in BPW Advisory 2001-1 and DGS-OSP’s Procurement Review Group Policy.
- Complete the entire PRG document, unless the forms do not apply.
- Take a second look before branding an item as a single element of work.
- Having ample MBE primes available does not preclude your agency from completing research for MBE goals and available MBE firms.
Once your contract is awarded, there are a few important things to remember as well:
- Be sure to provide ample justification for your MBE goal, modifications and the MBE compliance, and your BPW agenda documents. This should be easy to do as goal justifications should have already been included in the PRG documents.
- Once the contract is under way, consider ways to confirm that named MBE subcontractors are aware of their inclusion on awarded contracts through a letter, email, or a kickoff meeting to ensure that expectations are clearly communicated.
While this may not be easy, it is necessary in order to collectively carry out procurements in an efficient and successful manner that minimizes risk to the state. As quoted by Frances Hesselbein "culture reflects the realities of people working together every day."
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FY2025 Liaison Trainings:
SBR - July 25, 2024, 1pm - 4pm
VSBE - July 30, 2024, 9am - 12pm
New Liaison Onboarding: August 22, 2024, 1pm - 3pm
Next GOSBA Quarterly Compliance Calls: September 17, 2024, 10am
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