Because of federal budget cuts, there’s less money overall available for government contracts, but more of it’s going to small businesses, a top SBA official said.

John Shoraka, the SBA’s associate administrator of government contracting and business development, is in Kansas City to speak to a gathering of the Society of American Military Engineers. In a brief interview Tuesday, he talked about the agency’s efforts to help smaller companies win government work.

The federal government spent 22.25 percent of its contracting dollars with small businesses in 2011-12, just short of the official goal of 23 percent.

During Shoraka’s appearances in Kansas City, he’ll be talking about changes tresulting from the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010.

Among other things, the act requires agencies to pay prime contractors faster and increases the potential penalties for companies that misrepresent their size or socioeconomic status in order to win government contracts. The goal is to make sure the government’s contracting programs are really helping the businesses they’re designed to benefit, Shoraka said.