Today in federal contracting failure I want to shed light on a company named Erdas Inc. Experts in the geospatial industry, Erdas has been winning small business contracts since at least 2006, but has not been a small business since at least 2005 when they were purchased by Sweden geospatial giant Hexagon AB.  Moreover, Erdas has never registered with the federal government’s online representation database as a small business so in no way, shape or form should even the government’s least competent employee have screwed this one up.

Erdas has won millions in small business contracts since 2006 and so far in 2012, this large business has won $1.2 million. This comes after the New York Times quoted SBA spokesperson Hayley Meadvin, saying federal contracting data is as “clean as it an be.” Yet the SBA failed to realize that Erdas has been winning small business contracts for the past 6 years. Anyone that has followed the government wide 10-year-old contracting scandal knows “clean as can be” is an SBA talking point that they use so consistently that I imagine if you walked into the SBA press office you would catch them practicing the line in front of a mirror.