PETALUMA, Calif., July 9, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has now joined PublicCitizen and the American Small Business League (ASBL) in challenging the accuracy of small business contracting data released by the Pentagon and the SBA on June 26.

SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweetand the Pentagon's Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology andLogistics, Frank Kendall, held a joint meeting at thePentagon to release the results of the fiscal year 2014 Small BusinessProcurement Scorecard. They claimed small businesses received 24.99% of all federal contracts last year. Research by POGO, PublicCitizen and the ASBL all found the federal government's small business data wassignificantly inflated with billions of dollars in federalsmall business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and their subsidiaries.

POGO released an article by investigator Neil Gordonon July 7, titled "Federal Small Business Contracting: Fact or Fiction?"that found the SBA's Small Business Scorecard was dramatically inflatedstating, "the government simply fudges the numbers," and pointing out this problem"has persisted for years."

In May, Public Citizen released a damming investigative report titled "Slighted: AccountingTricks Create False Impression That Small Businesses Are Getting Their Share ofFederal Procurement Money, and the Political Factors That Might Be atPlay" that found the SBA had falsified the true percentage of federalcontracts to legitimate small businesses by grandfathering and exclusions.

The ASBL released their annual analysis of federal small business contracting dataon July 2. The ASBL study was based on the mostrecent data available from the Federal Procurement Data System. ASBL found theSBA had falsified the percentage and volume of federal contracts to legitimatesmall businesses by including contracts to over 175 Fortune 500 firms and theirsubsidiaries in the 24.99% of contracts they claimed were awarded to smallbusinesses. The largest recipient was Verizon with over $125million in federal small business contracts.

Some of the firms the SBA reported as small businesses were:Chevron, Apple, General Electric, AT&T, CVS, UPS, Bank of America, WellsFargo, Home Depot, Target, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Pepsi, Coca-Cola,Boeing, Oracle, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grummanand BAE.

Every year since 2005, the SBA Office of Inspector General hasnamed the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as thenumber one problem at the agency.

The House Small Business Committee unanimously adopted an amendment requesting a new GovernmentAccountability Office investigation into fraud in federal small businesscontracting programs.

After the release of the Public Citizen investigative reportSenate Small Business Committee Chairman, David Vitter,sent a letter to Ms. Contreras-Sweet demanding a complete list of all firms the SBA counted as small businessesin 2014. Senator Vitter's office has indicated hearings on the fraud and abusein federal small business programs could begin once the data is received fromthe SBA.

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PETALUMA, Calif., June 29, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On May 6, Public Citizenreleased a scathing investigative report title, "Slighted: AccountingTricks Create False Impression That Small Businesses  Are Getting TheirShare of Federal Procurement Money, and the Political Factors That Might Be atPlay," that found the federal government's small business contracting datahas been grossly inflated for years. The White House was so embarrassed by thereport they cancelled a major May 8 event to release the fiscal year2014 Small Business Scorecard.

Despite the rampant abuses uncovered in the Public Citizeninvestigation, the Pentagon and the Small Business Administration still held a joint meeting on June 26 to claim small businessesreceived 24.99% of all federal contracts in 2014. Surprisingly, that numberstill included billions to Fortune 500 firms that had been uncovered in thePublic Citizen investigative report.

In addition to the Public Citizen report, every year of theObama Administration, Peg Gustafson, the Inspector General for theSmall Business Administration who was appointed by President Obama, has namedthe diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as thenumber one problem at the SBA.

In 2009, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) essentiallyaccused the SBA of encouraging fraud in Report 10-108 that stated, "By failing to hold firmsaccountable, SBA and contracting agencies have a message to the contractingcommunity that there is no punishment or consequences for committingfraud…"

President Obama even released the statement, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small businesscontracts to corporate giants."

Every year for the last few years the American Small BusinessLeague (ASBL) has released an analysis that has uncovered approximately 75% of the top 100 recipients of federal small businesscontracts, each year, are actually large businesses.

The ASBL analysisfound over 160 Fortune 500 firms were the actual recipients of federal smallbusiness contracts in 2014.

Verizon was the single largest recipient of federal smallbusiness contracts last year with over $125 million.

Some of the firms that have receivedfederal small business contracts include Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, IBM,Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace Engineering(BAE), Verizon, Apple and Chevron.

Senate Small Business Committee Chairman, DavidVitter, demanded a list of the names of all firms that received small business contracts lastyear. Vitter's office has indicated he will hold a hearing on the rampantabuses in federal small business contracting programs.

The House Small Business Committee has also unanimously adoptedan amendment to request a new GAOinvestigation into fraud in federal small business contracting programs basedon research provided by the American Small Business League.

The American Small Business League has begun filming a documentaryon fraud and abuse in federal small business programs featuring investigativereports on the issue by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, RTTV anddozens of newspaper articles and radio shows.

To view full press release, click here:  http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pentagon-and-sba-join-forces-to-release-controversial-small-business-data-300106243.html?tc=eml_cleartime

PETALUMA, Calif., May 14, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new investigative report released by Public Citizen titled,"Slighted" has uncovered undeniable evidence the ObamaAdministration has cheated American small businesses out of hundreds ofbillions in federal small business contracts.

The subtitle for the report is, "Accounting Tricks Create False Impression That Small BusinessesAre Getting Their Share of Federal Procurement Money, and the Political FactorsThat Might Be at Play."

The investigative report by Public Citizen was prompted by research fromthe American Small Business League (ASBL) that indicated small businesseshave been defrauded out of billions of dollars in federal small businesscontracts since President Obama took office. ASBL's President Lloyd Chapman was interviewed for the report.

"I'm glad an organization like Public Citizen finallypublished a report that confirmed the rampant fraud in federal small businesscontracting programs that I first exposed in 2002. I think a more appropriate titlefor the piece would have been 'Defrauded out of Billions' as opposed to'Slighted,'" stated Chapman.

The Public Citizen report is just the latest in a long series of federal investigations and articles inthe press that have exposed fraud and abuse in federal small businesscontracting programs.

ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News and RTTV haveall reported on the fraud and abuse.

Previous investigationshave found billions of dollars in federal small business contracts have beenawarded to Rolls Royce, British Aerospace, Wal-Mart, Oracle, AT&T, Disney,Raytheon, Titan Industries, Microsoft, John Deere, SAIC, Johnson & Johnson,Bechtel, General Dynamics, General Electric, L-3 Communications, Pepsi, Sears,Verizon, Bank of America, Coke, Home Depot, Federal Express, Lowes, WellsFargo, Costco, Finmechannica in Italy,Thales in France,and Russian government owned international arms dealer Roseborn Exports.

Every year of the Obama Administration, SBA Inspector General Peg Gustafson has named the diversion offederal small business contracts to large businesses as the numberone problem at the SBA.

The Government Accountability Office essentially accused theObama Administration of encouraging fraud in Report 10-108 that stated, "By failing to hold firmsaccountable, SBA and contracting agencies have sent a message to thecontracting community that there is no punishment or consequences forcommitting fraud…"

In March, the House Small Business Committee unanimously adopted an amendment to request a new Government Accountability Office investigation intofraud in federal small business contracting programs based on research done byChapman's ASBL.

In 2008, President Obama released the statement, "I am proud to have the support of the American Small BusinessLeague and their grassroots efforts to help protect American small business."

Chapman has predicted President Obama will try to close the SBA to obscure therampant fraud.

To view full press release, click here:  http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/public-citizen-investigation-reveals-small-businesses-cheated-by-obama-administration-300083197.html?tc=eml_cleartime

PETALUMA, Calif., May 13, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A major White House event to announce the Obama Administration's most recent SmallBusiness Procurement Scorecard was abruptly cancelled on Friday afterPublic Citizen released an embarrassing investigative report that found the administration's smallbusiness data had actually been falsified and significantly inflated.

SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweetwas scheduled to lead the event along with several members of President Obama'scabinet and other senior executives.

Public Citizen's investigative report was titled "Sleighted"with a subtitle, "Accounting Tricks Create False Impression That SmallBusinesses Are Getting Their Fair Share of Federal Procurement Money, and thePolitical Factors That Might Be at Play."

The report was based on research by the American Small BusinessLeague (ASBL) and interviewswith President and founder Lloyd Chapman.Chapman has been sounding the alarm on rampant fraud and abuse in federalsmall business contracting programs since 2002. Chapman's ASBL has been theonly national small business organization to expose the rampant fraud with abarrage of pressreleases, blogs, TV and radio appearances and recently shortdocumentaries.

An article published by Washington Business Journalcorrespondent, Kent Hoover, titled, "It's Time for SBA to get real about small business contractingnumbers," appears to have also played a role in the administration'sdecision to suddenly cancel the event. Hoover contacted the SBA Press Office onThursday and asked for a list of the top 100 recipients of federal smallbusiness contracts.

Hoover also let the Press Office know he would be askingAdministrator Contreras- Sweet why the SBA continued to include Fortune 500firms in their small business contracting data. SBA Press Office Director Terry Sutherland hasgone underground since the controversy broke. The ASBL has accused retiredNaval Commander Sutherland of using his position as SBA Press Office Director to help obscure blatant fraud that has been uncovered inPentagon small business contracting programs.

The ASBL released press releases and videos on May 7 and May 8 predicting the Obama Administration's small businessnumbers would be fabricated and inflated with billions of dollars in contractsto Fortune 500 firms. Two more press releases were released on May 11 and May 12 confirming just that.

GovExec journalist Charley Clarkreleased his story on the SBA's misapplication of the law that permits largecompanies to win small business awards titled, "Advocacy Group Accuses SBA of Misapplying Law on Small BusinessSet-Asides."

AllGov journalist, Steven Straehleyreleased his article on the humiliating SBA fiasco titled, "Small Business Administration Uses Variety of Accounting Tricksto Give Contracts to Big Businesses."

"Its nice to finally have some help in exposing the rampantfraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs, since I firstuncovered it in 2002. I guess this means I have graduated from a conspiracynut to a credible whistleblower. I guess I need to prepare myself for theinevitable government anti-whistleblower campaign," stated Chapman. 

To view full press release, click here:  http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/washington-journalists-force-cancellation-of-white-house-small-business-event-300082763.html?tc=eml_cleartime

PETALUMA, Calif., May 12, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Obama Administration confirmed that SBA Administrator MariaContreras-Sweet was going to announce they exceeded thegovernment's 23% small business contracting goal at a White House evenscheduled for the final day of National Small Business Week. The event whichwas scheduled for Friday afternoon, May 8, was abruptlycanceled after journalists began to suggest the data might have beenfabricated.

The American Small Business League (ASBL) has accused the SmallBusiness Administration of falsifying their annual small business contracting numbersfor over a decade. Now Public Citizen and longtime Washington Business Journaljournalist Kent Hoover have joined the ASBL inchallenging the accuracy of the SBA's annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard. 

Hoover released a story on Friday that reported shortly after he contactedthe SBA Thursday afternoon and requested a list of the top 100 recipients offederal small business contracts for 2014, the SBA announced the event wasabruptly canceled. Obama Administration officials may have panicked over thepossibility Hoover would be asking the SBA Administrator to explain why Fortune500 firms continued to be included in the SBA's small business contracting datafor over 15 years.

A series of federal investigations and investigativereports in the media have found every year for over a decade the SBA has included billions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500firms and their subsidiaries in their annul small business contractingdata. 

Hoover's inquiry came on the heels of an investigative report by government watchdog group, PublicCitizen, which found the SBA's small business contracting numbers had beenfabricated and significantly inflated. The Public Citizen report was basedheavily on research done by the Californiabased American Small Business League and interviews with the group's President Lloyd Chapman.

Public Citizen Research Director, TaylorLincoln, acknowledged SBA Press Office Director Terry Sutherland refused to speak with himover the phone or respond to any questions as to why Fortune 500 firmscontinued to receive federal small business contracts. Sutherland also refusedto explain the SBA's excuse that "miscoding" has diverted smallbusiness contracts to Fortune 500 firms for over 15 years or provide theprovisions of the Small Business Act the SBA uses to justify their"exclusionary rule" or their "five yearrule."  

"It's obvious the White Housecompletely panicked at the possibility that for the first time in historyan SBA Administrator might have to actually explain why the SBA has cheatedAmerican small businesses out of billions for over 15 years by divertingfederal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms. I still expect PresidentObama will attemptto close the SBA to cover up this blatant fraud," stated ASBLPresident Lloyd Chapman.

It is unclear if and when the White House will reschedule theevent.

To view full press release, click here:   http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/white-house-abruptly-cancels-small-business-event-over-fraud-controversy-300081493.html?tc=eml_cleartime