•  SBA pays $14,282.90 to American Small Business League

•  ASBL had sued to get information released

The Small Business Administration has paid $14,282.90 to the American Small Business League of Petaluma to compensate it for its legal fees in a recent lawsuit where the business advocacy group prevailed.

The ASBL sued the SBA after the agency refused to release the names of Fortune 500 firms and other large businesses that had received “billions of dollars in federal small business contracts,” ASBL says.

The SBA argued that it had no information regarding the specific names of firms that had received federal small business contracts. But U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel, ruling in favor of ASBL, said, “The court finds it curious the SBA's argument that it does not 'control' the very information it needs to carry out its duties and functions."

ASBL says the information it pried out of the SBA through the lawsuit shows that “billions of dollars a month” in federal contracts supposedly meant for small businesses “had been diverted to Fortune 500 firms such as General Dynamics, Xerox, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, British Aerospace (BAE), Dell Computer and French giant Thales Communications.”

“I think it is time for someone in the media to ask President Obama why his administration is giving small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and then refusing to release the data that proves it,” says ASBL President Lloyd Chapman.

The ASBL is preparing to file up to 10 federal lawsuits against the Obama Administration within the next 60 days, says Mr. Chapman. He says the Obama Administration is refusing to release a wide variety of data related to small business contracting issues such as contracting officer information, phone records, the specific names of individuals within Fortune 500 firms that have claimed small business status, and the names of domestic and foreign owned companies that received federal small business contracts.

 Source:  http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=14345