The share of government contracting dollars that went to small businesses last fiscal year may have hit a record low in fiscal 2005, jeopardizing the government's goal of channeling 23 percent to small ventures, a Virginia-based research firm said Wednesday.

Of the $377.5 billion in federal contracting dollars awarded in fiscal 2005, small companies won just $65 billion -- or 17 percent -- according to Eagle Eye Publishers.

The Small Business Administration would not comment on the figures, saying it is still compiling its own small-business contracting report. But if the data holds up, it would be the lowest percentage awarded to small businesses since at least 1998.

By comparison, the SBA reported small firms won $69 billion worth of contracts -- or 23 percent of the total -- in 2004.

Eagle Eye President Paul Murphy said increased Department of Defense spending, which traditionally goes to larger companies, seems to be driving the contracting divide between large and small companies.

"Small business is healthy in many areas, but DOD contracts are causing the overall total to rise and small business is falling behind," he said from his office in Fairfax, Va.

Despite the weak showing on paper, the reality could be even worse, said the American Small Business League, a California-based advocacy group that has repeatedly sued the administration over contracting issues.

After reviewing Eagle Eye's list of the top 100 contractors identified as "small" by the government, the ASBL said at least 30 appear to be large companies, including defense giants General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman.

The top small-business contractor in 2005 was Gulf Stream Coach, which won $521 million worth of contracts. According to the company's website, it's the nation's largest privately held, full-line recreational vehicle manufacturer with more than 1,500 employees.

"There's no way Gulf Stream should be considered a small business," said ASBL President Lloyd Chapman.

A representative from Gulf Stream was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

There are numerous loopholes in SBA contracting that allow large corporations to be counted as small.

Firms sometimes outgrow the size standards, and small companies that were purchased by large corporations before 2004 can maintain their small-business status for the life of a contract, which can often last years.

More than a dozen government and private investigations have pointed to instances of abuse and fraud in the government's small-business contracting program.

The SBA's own Office of the Inspector General stated in a 2005 report that ``one of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire federal government today is that large businesses are receiving small-business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards."

The General Services Administration, which compiles procurement data for the SBA, said it could not comment on Eagle Eye's numbers until the SBA issues its report.

Eagle Eye, which sells procurement data and also does studies for government agencies including the SBA, used raw data from the GSA's Federal Procurement Data System and then supplemented it with Department of Defense data to produce its report, Murphy said.

When the SBA eventually does announce its figures, the scenario is likely to look rosier, said Murphy. The government excludes thousands of contracts from its calculations, including those that are carried out abroad, those funded by foreign governments and all Transportation and Security Administration deals.

"They wind up excluding tens of billions off the base, and that tends to increase the small-business share," Murphy said.

In 2004, when the SBA reported that the small business take was 23 percent, Eagle Eye's calculations put it at 20 percent.