Are you getting your slice of Uncle Sam’s pie? The feds were supposed to serve up 23% of its procurement dollars to small businesses during 2007. Official figures won’t come out until next month, but it appears 22.1% of federal contracting money found its way into small business coffers in 2007.

While the 2007 percentage lagged behind 2006, the money pot for 2007 was bigger — $436 billion.

One of the major hitches in getting money into the hands of small business has been a paperwork loophole that the feds say they’ve closed.

Until last year, small businesses that got procurement money and then were acquired by big businesses remained on the procurement rolls, for record-keeping purposes — even though the dough was lining a big company’s pocket.

This year is the first time that businesses have been required to demonstrate the accuracy of their systems for contracting.

The prospects for small business procurement funds are brightening, says the National Small Business Association.

Interested in learning more about federal small business procurement money?

Contact the Small Business Administration (www.sba.gov) or the American Small Business League, (www.asbl.com).

Tags: procurement, small business