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Office of Budget

Fiscal Year 2005 Performance and Accountability Report
Published November 15, 2005

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Strategic Goal Four: Contributing to the Nation's Well-Being

Strategic Objective 4.4: Socioeconomic Well-Being of Veterans

Enhance the socioeconomic well-being of veterans, and thereby the Nation and local communities, through veterans' benefits; assistance programs for small, disadvantaged, and veteran-owned businesses; and other community initiatives.

Performance Trends and Impact of FY 2005 Result

Performance Trend FY 2005 Impact
Supporting Measure: Attainment of statutory minimum goals for small business expressed as a percent of total procurement
* Data reported through November 3, 2005. FY 2005 data have not been finalized. Final data will be available in March 2006.
2001 32.6%
2002 31.2%
2003 31.8%
2004 28.5%
2005 Result 27.8%*
2005 Plan 23.0%
2006 Plan 23.0%
Strategic Target 23.0%
As part of its work on behalf of all veterans, VA provides economic opportunities to veteran-owned small business and service-disabled veteran-owned small business firms through its procurement of goods and services. During the latter portion of 2005, VA senior leadership strengthened its focus on these small business goals during Monthly Performance Reviews. As a result of this heightened emphasis, we expect our performance on this measure to improve in 2006.

Related Information

Major Management Challenges

Neither VA's Office of Inspector General nor the Government Accountability Office identified any major management challenges related to this objective.

Program Evaluations

No independent program evaluations have been conducted that specifically address this objective.

Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) Evaluation

No PART evaluations have been completed that specifically address this objective.

New Policies and Procedures

In October 2004 the President issued Executive Order 13360, Providing Opportunities for Service-Disabled Veteran Businesses to Increase Their Federal Contracting and Subcontracting. In February 2005 VA senior leadership approved an aggressive strategy to increase contracting opportunities for such businesses. VA's implementation strategy and those of other departments and agencies are posted for public review at http://www.vetbiz.gov/fpp/fpp.htm.

VA strategies include the following:

  • Reserving VA contracts exclusively for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.
  • Encouraging and facilitating participation by service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses in competitions for award of VA contracts.
  • Training VA personnel on applicable law and policies relating to participation of service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses in federal contracting.