Impact of Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts on 

Small Business

Eagle Eye Publishers, Fairfax, VA 22030

Jack Faucett Associates, Bethesda, MD 20814

2006. [43] pages. Under contract SBAHQ-02-M-0465

This report was developed under a contract with the Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, and contains information 

and analysis that was reviewed and edited by officials of the Office of Advocacy. However, the final conclusions of the report do not 

necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Advocacy.

In the mid-1990s Congress passed a series of initiatives designed to fundamentally reform the way 

agencies acquired information technology-related 

goods and services from the private sector. The goal 

of these reforms was to implement results- and performance-based management practices that made 

agency procurement more timely and efficient and 

insured that agencies were getting maximum value 

out of the taxpayer dollars they spent. One area in 

greatest need of procurement reform was information 

technology (IT). Prior to Congressional passage of 

procurement reforms, agency IT acquisitions could 

take as long as two years to complete.

Answering the growing movement for procurement reform, Congress passed a landmark measure in 1996 called the Information Technology 

Management Reform Act (ITMRA), also known 

as the Clinger-Cohen Act. Among the provisions, 

ITMRA included a section encouraging agencies to 

create multiple-award, multi-agency contracts for 

the purchase of IT goods and services, with the U.S. 

General Services Administration (GSA) playing the 

primary role. These contracts came to be known as 

government-wide acquisition contracts or GWACs. 

This report examines small business utilization under 

GWACs vehicles, both generalized contracts and 

those designated specifically for small businesses.

Overall Findings

GWAC spending totaled $16 billion between FY 

1995 and FY 2004. Of this total, $4.9 billion, or 

31 percent, was awarded to small businesses. The 

creation of GWACs devoted exclusively to small 

businesses has had an impact on small business utilization in GWAC acquisitions. Since agencies began 

using GSA’s 8(a) FAST GWAC in FY 1998 and the 

Department of Commerce’s COMMITS GWACs in 

FY 1999, total IT spending on these vehicles and on 

the more recent HUBZone GWAC has amounted to 

$1.5 billion, or 9 percent of total reported GWAC 

spending. This has increased the small business 

GWAC dollar share by nearly one-third overall.

Highlights

• GWAC spending totaled $16 billion between 

FY 1995 and FY 2004. Of this total, $4.9 billion, or 

31 percent, was awarded to small businesses.

• Small business GWAC dollars rose by a factor 

of 40 between FY 1997 and FY 2004 even as annual 

GWAC spending leveled off in FY 2004.

• GWAC spending in FY 2004 totaled $4.06 billion; the small business share was 32 percent.

• The small business GWAC dollar share rose in 

FY 2002 and FY 2003. In FY 2004, approximately 

one out of every three GWAC dollars was spent 

through small firms.

• Excluding dollars spent on three exclusive 

small business GWACs—8(a) FAST, COMMITS, 

and HUBZone—the small business share of GWAC 

spending was 24 percent. The three small business 

GWACs added 10 percent to the overall GWAC 

spending total and 40 percent to the GWAC dollars 

received by small businesses between FY 1995 and 

FY 2004.

• Between FY 1995 and FY 2004, GWACs 

accounted for 12 percent of total purchases in the 

primary IT categories, federal supply groups D 

(automated data processing services) and 70 (automated data processing hardware).

August 2006 No. 279
• Four GWACs—Millennia, ANSWER, SEWP 

II, and SEWP III—accounted for 58 percent of all 

GWAC spending FY 1995–FY 2004. Their combined 

small business share was 19.2 percent.

• GSA accounted for 52 percent of all reported 

GWAC spending in the FY 1995–FY 2004 period.

• Overall GWAC spending is highly stratified. 

The top five vendors receiving GWAC awards in 

the last 10 years accounted for 46 percent of total 

GWAC spending. The top 25 GWAC vendors 

received 79 percent of the GWAC dollars.

• The small business GWAC sector is also highly 

stratified, but not to the same degree as large GWAC 

vendors. The five largest small GWAC dollar recipients collected one-third of GWAC small business 

dollars for the FY 1995–FY 2004 period. The 25 

largest small firms together accounted for two-thirds 

of GWAC small business revenues.

Scope and Methodology

The GSA’s Federal Procurement Data System 

Individual Contract Action Report database (FPDS 

ICAR) provided the primary source data used in 

this study. The ICAR database is an electronic file 

containing data fields corresponding to all the information elements collected by contract officers on 

the DD-350 (defense) and 279 (civilian) transaction 

report forms. Each ICAR record represents information about one unique contract obligation on an 

unclassified prime contract typically worth at least 

$25,000.

To perform this analysis, the researcher extracted 

and analyzed all contract transaction records reported 

in the FPDS ICAR file covering the period October 

1994 through September 2004 (FY 1995–FY 2004). 

The data was summarized and totaled by GWAC 

program, agency, and NAICS code and further analyzed by the amount of dollars awarded to small 

businesses.

This report was peer reviewed consistent with 

the Office of Advocacy’s data quality guidelines. 

More information on this process can be obtained 

by contacting the director of economic research at 

advocacy@sba.gov or (202) 205-6533.

Ordering Information

The full text of this report and summaries of other 

studies performed under contract with the U.S. Small 

Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy are 

available on the Internet at www.sba.gov/advo/research. 

Copies are available for purchase from:

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Springfield, VA 22161

(800) 553-6847 or (703) 605-6000

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www.ntis.gov

Order number: PB2006-111712

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