PETALUMA,Calif., Sept. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The SmallBusiness Administration (SBA) has concluded taking public comment on acontroversial new policy that would create a "safe harbor from fraud penalties" for large businessesthat commit fraud to illegally land federal small business contracts.

Notsurprisingly over 90 percent of the public comments the SBA received on the"safe harbor fraud penalties" policy were strongly opposed to it. TheSBA only received two comments that favored the new policy and both of thosewere from law firms that represent large businesses.

Onecomment from Edward Kinberg describes, "This rule will open the door to governmentsanctioned fraud. Rather than take any action to ensure a business meets thesize standard for a procurement, they would be able to "guess" thatthey do, win the contract and IF their fraud is discovered claim it was aninnocent mistake."

TheAmerican Small Business League (ASBL)sent the SBA a comment that was stronglyopposed to the policy they believe will actually encourage fraud in federalsmall business contracting programs and protect fraudulent firms.

Undercurrent federal law, the penalty for any large businessthat misrepresents itself as a small business to illegally land federal smallbusiness contracts is up to ten years in prison, a $500,000fine per occurrence or both. Under the proposed "safe harbor from fraudpenalties" policy, a large business that commits felony federalcontracting fraud can avoid all penalties by simply claiming they "acted in good faith."

Asurvey of over 2000 Chambers of Commerce across the country by the American SmallBusiness League found the overwhelming majority of Chambers were stronglyopposed to the policy.

Everyyear since 2005 the SBA's own Office of Inspector General has named thediversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as the numberone problem at the SBA. In Report 5-15 the SBA Inspector General described theproblem as, "One of the most important challenges facing the SmallBusiness Administration (SBA) and the entire Federal government today…"

Report5-16 from the SBA Inspector General found large businesses were committingfraud to hijack federal small business contracts by making "false certifications."

EvenPresident Obama recognized the magnitudeof fraud in federal small business contracting programs when he released thestatement, "Itis time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporategiants."

Dozensof major newspapers along with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, RTTV, Fox Newsand CNBChave all reported on the issue.

TheSBA Office of Inspector General began finding widespread fraud in federal small business contractingprograms as early as 1995.

Itis unclear what the SBA's next step will be in attempting to adopt the"safe harbor from fraud penalties" policy considering the overwhelming public opposition to the policy.

To view full press release, click here:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sba-safe-harbor-from-fraud-policy-gets-thumbs-down-from-public-274584001.html

PETALUMA,Calif., Sept. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The HouseSmall Business Committee is holding a hearing on Wednesday,September 10, titled Small Business Administration: Management and Outlook. Thehearing will be held at 1:00 PM in Room 2360 of theRayburn House Office Building.

Theonly witness scheduled is new SBA Administrator MariaContreras-Sweet. Administrator Contreras-Sweet could facesome tough questions on a series of controversies at the SBA.

Everyyear since 2005 the SBA Office of Inspector General has named the diversionof federal small business contracts to large businesses as the number oneproblem at the SBA. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News and RTTV haveall reported on the issue.

TheSBA has consistently refused to adopt any policies to halt the rampant fraud andabuse. To the contrary the SBA recently concluded taking public comment on anew "safe harbor from fraud penalties" policy that manypeople believe will encourage even more fraud in federal small businesscontracting programs.

Over90 percent of the comments the SBA received on the "safe harbor from fraudpenalties" policy were opposed to it. 

On August 1, Administrator Contreras-Sweet announced the federal government had awarded $83 billion in federal contracts to small businesses. TheSBA claimed that amounted to 23.39 percent of all federalcontracts. Since the announcement on August 1, ithas been reported the SBA included billions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500 firms and their subsidiaries in the $83 billion the SBA claims was awarded to smallbusinesses.

Federallaw requires a minimum of 23 percent of all federal contracts be awarded tosmall businesses.  To reach their 23.39 percent number, the SBA used apolicy that has no basis in federal law they created called "smallbusiness eligible dollars". For fiscal year 2013 the SBA claims the "small businesseligible dollar" amount was a mere $355 billionout of a total federal spending for that year of $3.5 trillion.

Arecent legal opinion by Professor Charles Tiefer,one of the nation's leading experts on federal contracting law, states there isno basis in the law for including any contracts to large business in smallbusiness contracting data. He also concluded a more accurate federalacquisition budget number that should be used in calculating the percentage ofaward to small businesses is over one trillion dollars.

TheAmericanSmall Business League estimates that if the more accurate one trillion dollar federal acquisition budget numberwere used and no contracts to Fortune 500 firms or other large businesses wereincluded, legitimate small businesses probably received no more than 5 percentof all federal contracts and not the 23.39 percent claimed by the SBA.  

Questionsfor the SBA can be directed to SBA spokesman TerrySutherland
(202) 205-6919 | terrence.sutherland@sba.gov| www.terrysutherlandinfo.org

To view full press release, click here:  http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sba-administrator-could-face-tough-questions-from-congress-on-wednesday-274445541.html

PETALUMA,Calif., Sept. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- TheAmerican Small Business League (ASBL)has launched a national campaign to prompt Congress to request aninvestigation of the Small Business Administration (SBA) by both the GovernmentAccountability Office (GAO) and the FBI.

TheSmall Business Act mandates that a minimum of 23% of thetotal value of all federal contracts be awarded to small businesses. By law 5% of all federal contracts should go to woman-ownedsmall businesses, 5% to small disadvantaged owned businesses, 3% to service disabledveteran-owned small businesses and 3% to HUBZone businesses. The SBA isresponsible for overseeing all federal small business contracting programs.

TheASBL believes the information uncovered in a series of previous federalinvestigations clearly indicated that officials at the SBA helped to coordinatethe diversion of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal small businesscontracts to Fortune 500 firms and thousands of large businesses. Basedon information the ASBL has obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, theybelieve senior SBA officials have systematically falsified government reportson the actual percentage of federal contracts awarded to small businesses inevery federal program to assist small businesses. 

Everyyear since 2005, the SBA Office of Inspector General has reported the diversionof federal small business contracts to large businesses as thenumber one challenge at the SBA and yet SBA officials have refused to adoptany policies to halt the fraud and abuse.

TheGovernment Accountability Office investigated the SBA and essentially accusedthe SBA of encouraging fraud in the federal program to direct 3% of federalcontracts to disabled veteran-owned small businesses. In GAO Report 10-108 theGAO stated, "By failing to hold firms accountable, SBA and contractingagencies have sent a message to the contracting community that there is nopunishment or consequences for committing fraud or abusing the intent of theSDVOSB program."

TheASBL believes senior SBA officials have intentionally and illegally defraudedsmall business out of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts byusing fabricated terms such as "smallbusiness eligible dollars" to inflate the true volume of federalcontracts awarded to all categories of small businesses and intentionallyfalsify the government's compliance with federal law mandating small businesscontracting goals.

The Washington Post, The Hill, Government Executive, NBC, CNN, ABC, Fox News, MSNBC, RTTV and CNBC haveall reported on the abuses at the SBA.

TheASBL has mobilized a national campaign to encourage Chambers of Commerce andevery organization that supports small businesses, minority-owned, woman-ownedand service disabled veteran-owned small businesses to pressure Congress intoordering the SBA investigations.

TheASBL has launched an investigation of the SBA using theFreedom of Information Act (FOIA). To date the SBA has refused to fullycomply with any of their FOIA requests.

To view full press release, click here:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sba-facing-national-campaign-to-secure-gao-and-fbi-investigations-according-to-the-american-small-business-league-273722001.html