Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization


Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization is the name of offices within federal and state agencies charged with promoting efforts to do business with small and minority owned businesses. The offices are designed to aid in contracting. The offices exist at the Office of U.S. Secretary of Defense, U.S. Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Interior, Social Security Administration, U.S. Department of Justice and in the state of Virginia.

History

The offices were created after passage of Public Law 95-507 in 1978 which amended the Small Business Act of 1953 and addressed contracting. The law was signed by president Jimmy Carter.
A policy letter was released regarding contracting procedures in April 1980 laying out federal contracting requirements as they relate to the law.
The OSDBU at the Office of Secretary of State was involved in a bribery scandal that resulted in criminal convictions of two officials leading it in 2002.