(a) Under a May 6, 1998, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which was subsequently renamed Partnership Agreement and signed March 4, 2004, (formerly referred to as the Direct 8(a) MOU), SBA delegated to GSA its authority under Section 8(a)(1)(a) of the Small Business Act to enter into prime contracts and Section 8(a)(1)(B) to subcontract the performance of the contracts to eligible 8(a) participants. To implement the MOU, GSA obtained a class deviation to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) permitting direct 8(a) contracting.
(b) The delegation streamlines the acquisition process for requirements not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold (SAT) by eliminating offering letters and acceptance letters. For acquisitions over the SAT, this delegation expedites the contracting process by shortening the period of SBA’s acceptance of the requirement for the 8(a) program from 15 working days to 5 working days, and eliminating the requirement for multiple copies of the award document, SBA’s signature, and the tripartite agreement.
(c) This authority applies to all 8(a) acquisitions conducted by FSS, FTS, and PBS. It does not apply to FSS’s multiple award schedule program.
