Do you feel the temperature rising?

In the last six months, the government has:

• Started a crackdown on large businesses performing work contracted to small businesses, suspending one prominent contractor, then suspending its partners.
• Started knocking on the doors of HUBZone companies to ensure they are where they say they are
• Passed a new Small Business Jobs Act that, among other things, requires contractors to certify their size every year
• Passed new rules allowing it to stop paying contractors if their accounting systems don’t measure up to certain standards
• Required Contracting Officers to justify sole-source decisions in writing, even under the 8(a) program, which had always operated under looser rules
• Set new records in how much money it recovered from contractors under the False Claims Act

And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.

Notice a trend?

Image by Flickr user indichick, used under Creative Commons license.

It's not going to let up any time soon. In fact, government oversight of contractors – particularly those designated as small businesses – is about to get more intense.

A bipartisan group of senators, including both the Chairwoman and the ranking member of the Senate Small Business Committee, introduced the Small Business Contracting Fraud Prevention Act. GovExec describes it as "a wide-ranging, cradle-to-the-grave oversight framework of SBA's entire contracting portfolio, beginning with contractor certification and ending with post-award monitoring."

It would, among other things, increase civil and criminal penalties for companies that win small business contracts through misrepresentation – up to debarment from government contracting and complete repayment of all money earned under a contract.

It makes the penalties handed down to GTSI late last year look like a slap on the wrist – and GTSI, the Washington Post reports, is still reeling from a simple suspension lasting just a few weeks.

It's hardly surprising. Contracting has been under new scrutiny since the economic recession and the housing crisis left the government facing declining tax receipts, and no one responded with meaningful spending cuts – leaving us with an even bigger deficit than we've grown accustomed to.

We predicted that contracting would become a political target (even if contracting cuts won't even dent the problem), and so far, we've seen nothing to make us change our minds. Instead, we've seen a high-profile commission call attention to contracting abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan, more media scrutiny on the Native 8(a) program, and another GAO report concluding that small business money is still going to large businesses.

So, as a conscientious contractor with employees and their families depending on you, what can you do to protect yourself? Simple. Dot every i. Cross every t. Conduct your business as ethically as you can, and document every step.

Because – and this is crucial – in an environment of heavy scrutiny, your credibility is a competitive advantage. It's why we launched the industry's only Supplier Verification System last year – to give those who meet every standard a calling card that proves it, and help them team effectively with other contractors every bit as ethical.

Because, in the end, not one of these efforts to clean up contracting fraud is actually a threat to our industry. Every last one of them is a damn good idea.

Last Friday, I had the privilege of speaking to a group of military veterans who own small businesses as part of a panel at the Sixth Annual Veterans in Business Conference.

Looking around that room, and listening to the Admiral who directs small business programs for the U.S. Navy thank those men and women for the way they continue to serve their country even in their careers out of uniform, I couldn't help but think: How do I feel about all this government effort and impending oversight? Good for them and we should all applaud this effort. Nothing can be worse than fraud in the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned community. Every time a contract is awarded to a business that is falsely claiming that status, it robs one of our veterans of an opportunity that was rightfully theirs. Nothing could be worse.

Until recently, a business could self-certify that it was veteran owned, and compete for contracts reserved for our honored veterans. Today, you have to prove to the Veterans Administration (VA) that you've served before you can compete for VA contracts; and under the proposed legislation, Contracting Officers (COs or KOs) across all government agencies will have to check that VA database before awarding a contract.

It's just the sort of verification we should be doing as a country. It's just the sort of verification we should be embracing as an industry. After all, as I've started to realize recently, we're bigger than the problems before us – and our industry has nothing to fear from all of this oversight.

So yes, the temperature is heating up. Don’t fear it. Prepare, and make your preparation your advantage.

Jeff White is Deltek's VP, GovWin, the network that helps government contractors win new business every day. He can be reached at jeffwhite@govwin.com, or follow him on Twitter @Jeff_White1347.