July 11, 2003 WASHINGTON -- They are among America's larger companies: Verizon Communications, AT&T Wireless, Barnes & Noble booksellers and Dole Food Co. But in the government's contractor database, they are listed as small businesses.

The mistaken designations, contained in records obtained by The Associated Press, mean the government has overstated the contract dollars that are going to small business at a time when the Bush administration has been pressing to give smaller firms as much federal work as possible.

"The numbers are inflated; we just don't know the extent," said David Drabkin, senior procurement officer for the General Services Administration.

Once a company's status is mischaracterized, it stays that way through the life of a contract -- which can be 20 years.

One small-business man who is pushing to have the listings corrected says workers are paying in lost jobs.

"Most Americans work for small businesses, and most of all the new jobs are created by small businesses. This certainly has a dramatic impact on job creation," said Lloyd Chapman, who formed the California-based Microcomputer Industry Suppliers Association.

The government defines a small business as one that is independently owned and operated and is not dominant in its field. Size standards change from one industry to another.

Among the contractors designated as small businesses in the records obtained by the AP were:

* Verizon, the largest local phone company in the nation, and Verizon Wireless, the company's joint venture that is the largest U.S. wireless provider.

* Barnes & Noble, the top U.S. bookseller, with superstores in 49 states and the District of Columbia, plus mall stores.

* AT&T Wireless, the cellular-phone spinoff from AT&T.

* Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, which includes Sheraton, St. Regis and Westin hotels.

* Dole Food Co. Inc., the world's largest fresh fruit and vegetable producer.

* Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade, one of the top U.S. transportation engineering firms with projects worldwide.

* KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root. KBR is one of the world's largest providers of oilfield services and part of the company Vice President Dick Cheney ran before taking office.

The Bush administration has set a goal of providing small business with 23 percent of all federal contracts, but has fallen about 3 percentage points short.

Officials now acknowledge the percentage was inflated by the erroneous database entries.

Small businesses are significant political players, according to campaign-contribution figures supplied by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The political action committee of the National Federation of Independent Business, which calls itself the voice of small business, contributed more than $762,000 to federal candidates in the 2002 election cycle, 97 percent of it to Republicans.

Investigators from Congress' General Accounting Office found no evidence that large companies had tried to manipulate the designations. Rather, they blamed the mistakes on federal contracting officials who either entered wrong codes for business size or re-entered outdated information.

Large companies said they never intended to be listed as small businesses.