Women business owners and their enterprises have performed very well in the private sector, but the federal door continues to be open just a crack, despite a booming economy and a balanced federal budget. Women business enterprises have been described s the engine driving the U.S. economy, but we, in fact, are the ones who have been derailed from the federal track. I had looked forward to the opportunity of bidding larger federal contracts as a prime contractor. Bundling of contracts would put many projects out of reach and in essence force me to bid as a sub-contractor. My experience has shown that sub-contracting under a larger prime contractor can be detrimental to the financial health of a small contractor.
Competitive bidding is the main stay of the small contractor.
Bundled contracts would make projects too large for the small contractor to bid on and thereby limit bidding to a smaller number of large contractors. It is difficult to see how this would save the government money since it simply creates another tier of cost to the government. The government would do better to let out the contract as management contracts rather than construction contracts if all that is required is to manage sub-contracts. On the other hand, contract bundling also encourages larger contractors to do most of the contract by their own labor forces to keep profits within their company thus minimizing the opportunities for sub-contracting. In either case, the smaller contractor is left out in the cold.