(Bordallo PR) - Guam Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo participated in a press conference today called by Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), the Ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Small Business, to announce the release of "Scorecard VII."

Scorecard VII is a report that shows that the federal government failed to meet its small business contracting goal for the sixth consecutive year.

Congresswoman Bordallo voiced support for the work done by Congresswoman Velázquez to produce this report, the seventh annual contracting "Scorecard" report.

The federal marketplace today, which is worth upwards of $314 billion, is the world's largest buyer of goods and services. The Scorecard VII report finds that federal contracts to small business, however, are not keeping pace with the overall growth of the federal market. Many federal agencies have fallen short of meeting mandated small business contracting goals, according to the Scorecard VII report.

"This report is the only comprehensive study of its kind to monitor federal agencies' achievements toward attaining small business contracting goals," Bordallo said. "As this report released today reveals, America's small businesses are being shortchanged."

Congresswoman Bordallo expressed particular interest in the report's findings regarding Department of Defense (DOD) performance contracting with small businesses.

"DOD has reduced its small business contracts by 65% from 2004 to 2005, despite a 13% increase in total contracting during that same period of time," Bordallo said. She pointed out that, "$8 billion of DOD contracting money was provided to large businesses, but listed as going to small businesses."

With regard to DOD, the Scorecard VII report released today reveals that DOD contracting represents approximately 75% of the federal marketplace, and buys more goods and services than every other agency combined. But DOD awarded contracts totaling $8.2 billion to large companies miscoded as small businesses, the highest dollar value of any federal agency.

Scorecard VII found that in fiscal year 2005 nearly $12 billion dollars had been miscoded by all federal agencies combined as award to small business awards, when the contracts actually went to large businesses.

Democrats on the Committee on Small Business called on the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate whether or not these large businesses are intentionally certifying themselves as small businesses.

In addition, Democrats are requesting that the Inspector Generals for the four agencies which had the most incident of miscoding - the Departments of Treasury, Transportation, State and Education - conduct investigations to determine if their contracting officers are utilizing miscoding to meet small business goals.

Congresswoman Bordallo said that, "America's small businesses deserve fairer treatment in the federal market place than they currently receive."

Congresswoman Bordallo's participation in today's press conference represents her continuing efforts to encourage an increase in small business federal contract awards to Guam-based small businesses.