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Pa.’s small businesses benefitting from reduced certification time
Ed Gruver//July 24, 2023//
Intent on expanding state contracting opportunities for Pennsylvania‘s small minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses, the Department of General Services has reduced by 33% the time it takes the Department’s Bureau of Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities to certify a small business.
Businesses used to take 15 days to become certified by the Department of General Services (DGS). With the addition of updated software and Bureau staff, Department of General Services Secretary Reggie McNeil and the Department’s Bureau of Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities (BDISBO) reduced certification time to 10 days. This change took effect in May.
“When I took the post as Secretary of General Services, one of my first tasks was to evaluate the services and programs provided by the Bureau of Diversity, Inclusion and Small Business Opportunities, which aims to create a more fair and equitable landscape in the competition for state contracts,” McNeil said in a statement.
“Reducing the Bureau’s certification time was a change that we realized we could implement immediately and would have a positive impact on the small businesses looking to work with the commonwealth. DGS is proud of this accomplishment and certain that it will create more opportunities for small and minority owned businesses.”
BDISBO has updated its website to simplify where to find certification information and extended the business certification renewal from annually to every two years. Department priorities include identifying ways to improve and streamline Pennsylvania’s procurement system and restructuring the state’s owned and leased real estate portfolio to better respond to the future needs of the workforce.
