USAID's top small business contractors for 2014

For only the second year running, the U.S. Agency for International Development has set a worldwide procurement goal for U.S. small businesses — 10 percent of prime contract spending in fiscal 2015. USAID acting Administrator Alfonso Lenhardt reaffirmed that target Thursday at the U.S. aid agency’s eighth annual small business conference in Washington, D.C. In fiscal 2014, USAID awarded 12.1 percent of its prime contract spending worldwide to U.S. small businesses, nearly double its 6.5 percent target that year. Previously, USAID had only adhered to a U.S. small business prime contracting goal for its U.S-based procurements, which are far outnumbered by its mission-based procurements. Since fiscal 2011, USAID has surpassed this goal, which is also set annually, every year. Most recently, USAID reported that 20.8 percent of its prime contract spending for U.S.-based procurements in fiscal 2014 was awarded to U.S. small businesses, far exceeding its 12.4 percent target that year. USAID has hiked that target to 14 percent in fiscal 2015. In its latest federal procurement scorecard, the U.S. Small Business Administration gave USAID an A grade for its U.S. small business utilization in fiscal 2013. SBA is expected to issue its fiscal 2014 federal procurement scorecards shortly. USAID’s concerted push to expand its U.S. small business engagement, particularly through its worldwide procurement goal, seems to have gone some way to allay concerns in Washington that the U.S. aid agency’s drive to "go local" might be neglecting U.S. small business. It’s worth noting, however, that some quarters of the small business community still believe USAID’s U.S. small business procurement targets over the years haven’t been ambitious enough, especially when compared with the 23 percent goal for prime contracting with U.S. small businesses across the federal government. Based on prime contract obligation data from USAspending.gov, below, Devex ranks USAID’s top 20 small business contractors worldwide for fiscal 2014. In making our ranking, we relied on the contracting officer’s business size determination, as provided by USAspending.gov. U.S. firms garnered 98 percent of USAID’s fiscal 2014 prime contract obligations that went to vendors classified as a small business. Strikingly, we found that as in the case of USAID’s overall contractor base, the U.S. aid agency also has much work to do to broaden its base of small business partners. In fiscal 2014, USAID’s top 20 small business contractors accounted for 57 percent of the agency’s prime contract obligations to small businesses that year. USAID’s small business partner base would be considerably broader, however, if its subcontractors are considered. The U.S. aid agency has set a U.S.-based subcontracting goal for U.S. small businesses of 19 percent for fiscal 2015. Amid recent scrutiny of the U.S. government’s designation of certain affiliates of large corporations as small businesses, we also found that Terremark Federal Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of telecommunications giant Verizon, is USAID’s eighth biggest small business contractor. 1. Camris International Founded: 2003 Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $40.2 million Services provided: Technical assistance for Global Health Support Initiative II 2. Dexis Consulting Group Founded: 2001 Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $22.4 million Services provided: Program management and support, technical assistance and other services for various projects, including the Global Health Program Cycle Improvement Project 3. Tseng Consulting Group Headquarters: North Miami Beach, Florida, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $20.6 million Services provided: Construction of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti 4. International Business & Technical Consultants Founded: 1987 Headquarters: Vienna, Virginia, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $15.6 million Services provided: Program management and support, program evaluation, technical assistance and other services for various projects 5. Social Impact Founded: 1997 Headquarters: Arlington, Virginia, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $13.9 million Services provided: Program management and support, program evaluation, technical assistance and other services for various projects, including the Global Health Professional and Organizational Development Program 6. ECODIT Founded: 1993 Headquarters: Arlington, Virginia, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $11.8 million Services provided: Program management and support, technical assistance and other services for various projects including the Energy Links Project in Central Asia 7. Jefferson Consulting Group Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $11.7 million Services provided: Program management and support, and technical assistance 8. Terremark Federal Group Founded: 2005 Headquarters: Herndon, Virginia, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $11.4 million Services provided: Telecommunications and transmission services 9. Terratherm Founded: 2000 Headquarters: Gardner, Massachusetts, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $11.2 million Services provided: Environmental remediation at Danang Airport in Vietnam 10. Partners for Global Research and Development Founded: 2012 Headquarters: Silver Spring, Maryland, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $11 million Services provided: Program evaluation, technical assistance and other services for various projects, including the Child Blindness Project 11. Insight Systems Corp. Headquarters: Arlington, Virginia, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $10.9 million 12. The Mitchell Group Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $8.6 million 13. Training Resources Group Headquarters: Arlington, Virginia, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $8.5 million 14. Development & Training Services Headquarters: Arlington, Virginia, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $8.1 million 15. Development Transformations Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $7.6 million 16. Tradewinds Shipping Headquarters: Markham, Ontario, Canada Obligated USAID contract funding: $7.3 million 17. Apprio Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $7 million 18. Liberty Glory Corp. Headquarters: New Hyde Park, New York, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $7 million 19. Dalberg Headquarters: New York, New York, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $6.9 million 20. eGlobalTech Headquarters: Arlington, Virginia, United States Obligated USAID contract funding: $6.4 million Check out more funding trends analyses online, and subscribe to Money Matters to receive the latest contract award and shortlist announcements, and procurement and fundraising news.