PETALUMA, Calif., April 15, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/-- The House Small Business Committee has unanimously adopted an amendment thatwould initiate a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into fraud andabuse in federal small business contracting programs. The purpose of theinvestigation is to find out why billions ofdollars a year in federal small business contracts are being diverted toFortune 500 firms.

Congresswoman Janice Hahnwrote the amendment based on research done by Lloyd Chapman'sAmerican Small Business League (ASBL).On March 25, 2015, Hahn issued a press release expressing her concerns on theproblem.

The last GAO investigation into fraud and abuse in federalsmall business contracting programs, which was also based on informationprovided by Chapman, was completed in 2003.

A February 2003 story in Washington Technology reported,"The General Accounting Office began its own investigation based oninformation Chapman provided," stated by GAO executive, Dave Cooper.

Chapman provided information to the GAO in2002 that uncovered thousands of corporategiants were receiving federal small business contracts. The GAOinvestigation found over 5,300 large businesses were the actual recipients offederal small business contracts.

Chapman has won a series of Freedom of Information Act cases thatuncoveredwidespread fraud in federal small businesscontracting programs. The government was forced to release thousands ofpages of documents that proved Fortune 500 firms were the actual recipients offederal contracts that the SBA reported as contracts awarded to smallbusinesses.

In Report 5-15 the SBA Inspector General described thediversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants as, "Oneof the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration (SBA)and the entire Federal Government today."

At the end of last year the House SmallBusiness Committee chastised SBA's Administrator, MariaContreras-Sweet, for including dozens of Fortune 500companies and other large businesses in their FY2013small business contracting data.

During his first campaign, President Obama released thestatement, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small businesscontracts to corporate giants."

ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News and RTTV allreleased reports on the diversion of federal small business contracts tocorporate giants.

Some of the firms that were uncoveredreceiving federal small business contracts included, IBM, Hewlett-Packard,Oracle, Microsoft, Rolls-Royce, Walmart, Disney, Apple, Chevron, Bank ofAmerica, British Aerospace Engineering (BAE), Raytheon, Lockheed Martin,Verizon, AT&T and Northrop Grumman.

"Congresswoman Hahn's amendment could bring an end to therampant fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs thathave cheated legitimate small businesses out of hundreds of billions over thelast few years. Being an advocate for small business is not a popular stance inWashington these days andCongresswoman Hahn has demonstrated a great deal of courage and integrity inrequesting a new GAO investigation into this very serious problem," statedLloydChapman, President of the American Small Business League.

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PETALUMA, Calif., April 2, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Professor Charles Tiefer,one of America's leading experts on federal contracting law has issued an opinion slamming a new policy proposed by the Small Business Administration(SBA) that could force thousands of small businesses in the InformationTechnology industry out of the federal market place.

"The change would strike an unwarranted blow at theInformation Technology (IT) 'Solutions' industry." Professor Tiefer alsostates, "The rule change will mean thousands of small business concernswould be ineligible for government contracts."

Professor Tiefer appeared on Federal News Radio on Wednesday to voice his opposition tothe new SBA policy.

In 2014, the SBA proposed a similar new policy that would have reclassified over 13,000small businesses in the IT industry as large businesses. Professor Tiefer's opinion on that policy found the SBA lacked the Congressional authority to adopt such a rulethat would have been so harmful to thousands of small IT firms.

"Doing that, as the opinion showed, violates Congress'sstatutory intent in the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, and, withoutjustification, repeals the SBA's 2003 action recognizing this sub-industry. Itstruck a wholly unjustified hard blow at these struggling valuable modest sizedbusinesses. On the proposed rule change addressed here, the SBA is again wrongin trying to do this—and is wrong once again," Professor Tiefer stated inreferring to his opposition to the SBA's 2014 proposed policy that could havedevastated thousands of small IT firms.

The SBA has been widely criticized for adopting policies thatharm legitimate small businesses while adopting other policies that divertbillions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.Several federalinvestigations and investigative reports in the media haveuncovered blatant fraud in virtually every program administered by the SBA.

In a recent hearing in the U.S. House Small Business Committee,new SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet was criticized bymembers of the committee for including billions of dollars in contracts toFortune 500 firms in the SBA's claim the government awarded 23.39 percent ofall federal contracts to small businesses in fiscal year 2013.

Just last week House Small Business Committee member Janice Hahn called for aGovernment Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into the diversion offederal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms based on researchconducted by the American Small Business League (ASBL).

"This new SBA policy will force thousands of smallbusinesses in the Information Technology industry out of the federal marketplace while the SBA continues to divert billions in federal small businesscontracts to corporate giants. It's time for Congress and the GAO to step inand find out exactly who is responsible for the continual flow of anti-smallbusiness policies coming from the SBA," stated ASBL PresidentLloyd Chapman.

The SBA will be taking public comment on the proposed policy until Monday,April 6, 2015.

To view full press release, click here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-charles-tiefer-opinion-sba-rule-would-devastate-small-it-firms-300060543.html?tc=eml_cleartime 

PETALUMA, Calif., March 31, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- If a new SBA policy takes effect, thousands of small businessesin the IT industry will be reclassified as large businesses. At the same timeexisting SBA policies will continue to report billions of dollars in contractsto Fortune 500 firms as small business contracts.

The SBA reopened a policy for public comments that is attempting to makeamendments to small business government contracting and the National DefenseAuthorization Act of 2013 involving small business set aside contracts andsmall business subcontracting. The SBA proposed changes to the standard forsubcontracting by small business primes from no more than 50% of personnelcosts performing the set aside contract to no more than 50% of the award amountreceived by the prime contractor.

There is no logical justification for making this change inpolicy. It is inconsistent with the SBA's primary mission and seems outrageousin comparison to the current SBA policies that allow contracts to Fortune 500firms to be reported as small business contracts. This change will have adevastating impact on IT Value Added Resellers who currently provide services andsupplies to Federal agencies.

A number of investigative stories in the main stream media and a long seriesof federal investigations have found widespreadfraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs. A number ofcongressionalhearings have found lack of oversight on the part of the SBA that has allowed widespreadfraud to permeate virtually every program managed by the SBA.

This policy comes on the heels of another anti-small businesspolicy, the "safe harbor from fraud penalties" policy that wouldallow firms to commit Federal contracting fraud. Large businesses thatmisrepresent themselves as small businesses and commit Federalcontracting fraud to illegally receive federal contracts to avoid allprosecution can simply claim they "acted in good faith." Opponents of the new policy areconcerned this is just another policy that appears to be designed to weaken anddismantle federal small business contracting programs and create moreloopholes and channels where federal small business dollars can be diverted tolarge businesses.

When the SBA tried a similar policy in October of 2014, Professor Charles Tiefer and the U.S. House Small Business Committee released legal opinionsthat found the SBA did not have the legal authority to make that change.

"Based off of Professor Tiefer's legal opinion fromNovember of 2014, I don't believe the SBA has the legal authority to make thischange. This is yet another anti-small business policy from the SBA. The agencythat continues to report billions a year in contracts to Fortune 500 firms assmall business contracts. And if this policy is passed it will reclassifythousands of legitimate small businesses in the IT industry as large businesseswhile the SBA continues to convert billions in small business contracts toFortune 500 firms," stated Lloyd Chapman,President of the American Small Business League.

The SBA is taking public comment until April 6,2015.

To view full press release, click here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-sba-policy-opposed-by-small-it-firms-300058145.html