Rules tighten for Native corporation contracting

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Alaska Native corporations are bracing for changes in rules for federal contracts that fueled their growth.
The Anchorage Daily News reports one change in Defense Department spending restricts no-bid contracts above $20 million.
Sarah Lukin of the Native American Contractors Association in Washington, D.C., says that change is already having a chilling effect.
Some of Alaska's largest Native corporations – NANA Development, Arctic Slope Regional, Chugach Alaska and Chenega – are defense contractors.
The Small Business Administration also is tightening rules for minority contracts to respond to critics who say they are bad deals for taxpayers. One proposed change would require Native-owned companies to report each year how the federal contracts are benefiting their shareholders.
Native-owned firms would still be able to win federal contracts without competition. In an interview Tuesday, SBA administrator Karen Mills said that the Obama administration supports the minority contracting program but is tightening oversight.
One of the major critics of the program, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, runs a Senate oversight committee that has been investigating Alaska Native corporation participation in the SBA program. McCaskill has said that she believes that a number of Native corporations are too big to qualify as small businesses.
McCaskill was responsible for the change in Defense Department contracting, which came in an amendment to a spending bill.
“This (amendment) came through at the 11th hour,” said Clyde Gooden, vice president for business development at NANA Development Corp., the business arm of Kotzebue-based NANA Regional Corp.
Gooden remains unsure about the amendment's impact. The Defense Department has agreed to host tribal consultations before drafting new regulations.
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Information from: Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com