Alaska Native Firms Capitalize on No-Bid Deals
Source: By Griff Witte, Washington Post, Wednesday, April 12, 2006; D03
Alaska Native Corporations have quadrupled their share of federal small-business contracts in just the past few years, but the government has provided lax oversight that opens the door to potential abuses, according to a new audit by the Government Accountability Office.
The companies, known as ANCs, receive preferences that make it easier for the government to give them no-bid contracts under a program for small and disadvantaged businesses. With federal procurement offices increasingly spread thin with smaller staffs and fewer resources, the firms' business has surged as the government turns to them for help without having to conduct competitions. From 2000 to 2004, the value of contracts received by ANCs under the small- and disadvantaged-business program jumped to $1.1 billion from $265 million, according to a draft copy of a GAO report obtained by The Washington Post.