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Small Business Administration sued over data nondisclosure

by | Feb 6, 2008 | ASBL News

News

Small Business Administration sued over data nondisclosure

Central Valley Business Times
February 6, 2008

The U.S. Small Business Administration is being sued for refusing to disclose the names of companies given federal contracts.

The American Small Business League, which brought the action Wednesday U.S. District Court in San Francisco, contends the SBA has violated the Freedom of Information Act by not releasing the names of Fortune 1000 firms that have received “billions of dollars” in federal contracts that should have gone to small businesses in 2005 and 2006.

"In this instance, we have no commeny," a spokesman for the SBA says in an e-mail to CVBT.

Lloyd Chapman, president of Petaluma-based ASBL, says that since 2003 more than a dozen federal investigations revealed that some of the largest corporations in the United States and Europe were the actual recipients of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts.

(Mr. Chapman elaborates on his arguments in a CVBT Audio Interview. Please click on the link below to listen or to download the MP3 audio file to your computer or iPod.)

Under the Freedom of Information Act, ASBL requested the specific names of all firms that were coded by the federal government as small businesses for FY 2005 and FY 2006, but to no avail, Mr. Chapman says.

He says SBA Administrator Steven Preston has not lived up to a promise of support for transparency in federal government.

Within the next 60 days, the ASBL plans to file similar lawsuits against the Pentagon and the General Services Administration, Mr. Chapman says.

Source:  http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=7778#drilldown

Podcast:  Small Business Administration sued over data nondisclosure

SBA to Hold Hearing in San Francisco on Tuesday

by | Feb 4, 2008 | Press Release

Press Release

SBA to Hold Hearing in San Francisco on Tuesday

February 4, 2008

Petaluma, Calif. - On Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 Small Business Administration (SBA) National Ombudsman Nicholas Owens, members of the Region IX Regulatory Fairness Board and representatives of Federal regulatory agencies will hear comments, concerns and complaints regarding federal regulatory enforcement and compliance from the American Small Business League (ASBL) and small business owners from the Bay Area.

During its comment period, the ASBL plans to identify problems within the federal regulatory environment that have led to the diversion of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 1000 corporations and their subsidiaries.

The ASBL contends that every year, more than $100 billion in federal small business contracts are diverted from legitimate small businesses to some of the largest corporations in the United States and Europe.

"The lack of regulatory enforcement at the SBA has led to an atmosphere of fraud, abuse, loopholes and the diversion of small business contracts to large and international corporations," President and Founder of the ASBL, Lloyd Chapman said. "It is time for the federal government to enforce the laws that have been put in place to prevent such abuses."

Since 2003, there have been more than a dozen federal investigations, which have found that billions of dollars in federal small business contracts have been diverted from legitimate small businesses to firms like: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Battelle, Bechtel, Hewlett-Packard and BAE systems. (https://www.asbl.com/documents/Fedmine.pdf)

In Report 5-15, the SBA Office of Inspector General stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the entire Federal Government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards."

"To create a more cooperative regulatory environment among federal agencies and small businesses, the federal government needs to enforce the current regulations," Chapman said. "It's a simple proposition: remove large firms, punish them for cheating, create greater access to federal contracts for legitimate small businesses and allow small businesses to succeed." 

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Bush Ignores Small Businesses With Last State of The Union Address

by | Jan 30, 2008 | Press Release

Press Release

Bush Ignores Small Businesses With Last State of The Union Address

January 30, 2008

Petaluma, Calif. –  With the pressure of the economic downturn on his shoulders, President George W. Bush delivered his final State of the Union Address Monday, and to the dismay of small business advocates failed to adequately address the concerns of the more than 26 million small businesses across the country.
 
During his two-term presidency, President Bush has established an anti-small business track record by cutting the Small Business Administration’s staffing and budget by more than half and by adopting policies that allowed the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 1000 corporations and other large companies.
 
The American Small Business League (ASBL) points to the SBA’s June 2007 5-year re-certification rule as an example of the Bush Administration’s anti-small business policies. The rule, which went into effect on June 30th, allows the federal government to continue to count small business contract awards to Fortune 1000 corporations towards the 23 percent small business procurement goal through 2012.
 
“Over the past seven years he [President Bush] has ignored more than a dozen federal investigations that have all found fraud, abuse, loopholes and a lack of oversight to be contributing factors to the diversion of federal small business contracts to large and international corporations,” President and Founder of the ASBL, Lloyd Chapman said. “We estimate that every year nearly $100 billion in federal small business contract awards are awarded to Fortune 1000 corporations.”
 
The ASBL estimates that Bush administration policies have allowed more than $100 billion a year to be diverted from legitimate small businesses to the top 2 percent of firms in the United States and Europe. (https://www.asbl.com/documents/Fedmine.pdf)
 
“With the economy slumping, President Bush should be focusing on helping the backbone of America, its small businesses,” Chapman said. “By stopping the diversion of federal small business contracts to large and international corporations, we would be putting nearly $100 billion back into the hands of middle class firms where most Americans work.”
 
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