Small businesses are getting less than 5 percent of federal contracts, though federal law mandates they receive at least 23 percent, the American Small Business League said in a statement Wednesday.

The Small Business Administration announced in June that in 2005 small business received $119 billion in prime and subcontracts, including a "record-breaking" $79.6 billion in prime federal contracts, or 25.4 percent. However, the ASBL said small businesses received less than $20 billion in prime and subcontracts.

The ASBL based its findings on U.S. Census Bureau statistics, which state 98 percent of firms have fewer than 100 employees, and these 23 million companies are where more than half of all Americans work.

"I don't know where they're getting their information from," said Ruben Garcia, district director for the U.S. Small Business Association office in San Diego.

According to Garcia, small businesses nationwide gained $79.6 billion in federal prime contracts last year, $10 billion more than the previous year. That represents 25.4 percent of federal contracts, surpassing the overall government statutory goal.

"Everything I look at shows increase," Garcia said.

A study on the government's data, conducted by Eagle Eye Publishers,reported $65 billion in prime contracts to small business, or 17 percent of total federal procurements for 2005. Eagle Eye president Paul Murphy told Washington Technology that the SBA is "either comparing apples to oranges" or else "has access to numbers that the general public does not." Murphy said the SBA is "manipulating the appearance of success."

"The data gets problematic in two ways," said Julie Meier Wright, CEO of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. "There are inconsistent definitions of what constitutes a small business."

Wright said designation of a small business can be made by number of employees or by revenue.

"It leaves a litany of things open to interpretation," she said, adding that the role and revenue of the subcontractor is also not always thoroughly examined.

"These days, a small company could be $100 million dollar company, because it's competing with $100 billion dollar company," she said.

Though the SBA's June announcement cited a total procurement of $314 billion, the ASBL said this number excludes costs such as government credit card purchases, contracts outside the United States and contracts with agencies including the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration. According to information obtained by the ASBL through the Freedom of Information Act, the total volume of federal contracts in 2005 was $380 billion, though the ASBL said if unreported defense contracts are included, it might be as high as $450 billion.

"It's time for small business owners to realize that business groups that have historically claimed to represent them are conspicuously silent on this issue," said Lloyd Chapman, president of ASBL. "The absence of any objections from these major groups in the face of the wholesale diversion of billions in contracts to large corporations is proof that they do not have the best interest of small business at heart."

"Agencies of the government don't always do their jobs as well as they should," said Scott Alevy, vice president of public policy and communication for the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, whose membership consists of mostly small businesses.

Alevy attributed the lack of government contracts to small businesses as a possible bureaucratic mix-up, when small companies grow larger, yet continue to apply and gain preferencial contracts.

"These programs are all designed to help small companies become bigger and better companies," he said. "When they (first) applied, they were small companies. Not anymore."

Alevy does not expect the chamber to take any action in response to the ASBL allegations.