Letter to the editor

I am a loyal reader of Federal Computer Week and a former Air Force contracting officer and small-business advocate.

I would like to address an issue covered by Carl Peckinpaugh in his column Sept 16 ["Sizing up small biz laws"] about General Services Administration schedule holders being able to retain their small-business status on their GSA schedules when they have long since become large businesses. This is a real problem for GSA schedule holders that truly are small companies and who often cannot compete with a large "small" business due to economies of scale.

I think the fact that Part 6 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation gives an exception to small-business considerations for schedule buys also is anti-small business. One of our biggest nemeses is a company shown as a small business in GSA Advantage and as a large business on all of its contracts.

I can't see the GSA Federal Supply Schedule division caring much about this (it's their bread and butter), but I would certainly think the Small Business Administration and the General Accounting Office should.

This seems to be a conflict between acquisition streamlining and small-business regulations, and I think something really does need to be done about it.

Debbie Gallegos
IPI GrammTech Ltd.