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Purchasing for Small Business Subcontracting Plans

Federally funded contracts in excess of $750K may be required to submit and operate under a Small Business Subcontracting Plan. Purchasing will prepare the Plan using the project's detailed final budget, with these expectations:

  • Sponsors want non-zero commitments in as many categories of small business as possible, and proposals with higher levels of small business goals may be favored;
  • The Approved Plan is a contractual obligation. Failure to meet the goals, or demonstrate a good-faith commitment to achieve the goals, may be considered a breach of contract and cause the sponsor to seek return of money paid to UCLA under the contract;
  • The project will use the small business suppliers identified in the plan, plus others that may become known during the project.

Small business categories include small business, woman-owned small business, disadvantaged small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled-veteran-owned small business, Hubzone (historically under-utilized business zone) small business, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Socially & Economically Disadvantaged 8(a) businesses and Alaska native corporation / Indian tribe businesses.

Purchasing will prepare and submit required semi-annual reporting on the Small Business Subcontracting Plans in April and October, comparing project-to-date expenditures by small business category to the goals in the Plan. We use the federal government’s eSRS (electronic subcontracting reporting system) to submit to the sponsoring agencies. If we are the prime contractor with a subcontractor in excess of $700K, that sub may need to develop a Plan for our review, and report to us via eSRS, too.

BruinBuy catalogs include icons identifying the supplier as a small business (e.g., Guy Brown for office supplies or KST Data for computers) or a service-disabled-veteran-owned small business (e.g., Amerit Consulting for staffing services). Pricing may be a little higher than the prime large business supplier. Please look for these icons as you catalog shop in BruinBuy for your project with a Plan.