A coalition of small business advocates, trade organizations, businesses and non-profit organizations led by the American Small Business League (ASBL) has sent letters to the Small Business Administration (SBA), Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requesting greater transparency in federal small business contracting. This precedes the release of the SBA’s annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard, which is due out this summer and known for overstating the percentage of contract dollars awarded to small businesses.
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“The government must ensure that small business data is accurate and timely -- small businesses and the public deserve to know whether the government is actually close to small business contracting goals,” said Scott Amey, General Counsel at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO). “Moreover, enhanced competition and small business opportunities are good for taxpayers and great for the economy.”

The federal government has a statutory goal of awarding 23 percent of the total value of all prime contract dollars to legitimate small businesses, but has never accomplished this goal. To make matters worse, the SBA overstates the percentage of federal contracts awarded to small businesses by including contracts awarded to large businesses. The SBA also overstates the percentage of contracts awarded to small businesses by dramatically understating the federal acquisitions budget, including classified and unclassified contracts.

“It is important to accurately report federal agencies’ priorities and performance levels in meeting the 23 percent small business goal set by Congress in 1997 that goes unmet year after year,” said Roger A. Campos, President & CEO of the Minority Business RoundTable. “Failing to meet these goals has cost America’s small and minority businesses billions in lost opportunities.”

Since 2003, more than a dozen federal investigations have found billions of dollars in federal small business contracts flowing into the hands of corporate giants. Following fiscal year 2011, which ended in September, the SBA Office of Inspector General named the fact that procurement flaws allow large firms to obtain small business awards and agencies to count contracts performed by large firms towards their small business goals as the SBA’s top management challenge for the seventh consecutive year.

“During his campaign, President Obama promised to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants,” said Lloyd Chapman, President of the ASBL. “It is time for President Obama to force the SBA to stop fabricating these numbers. They need to tell the truth, which is that small businesses get a small fraction of what the SBA says they do.”

The undersigned individuals and organizations have endorsed this effort: