March 6, 2010

 The American Small Business League says it plans to go to federal court Monday seeking an order that would forbid destruction of records indicating what businesses got federal contracts.

“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,” ASBL says.

On March 12, the Obama Administration intends to move forward with a plan that could destroy years of “incriminating contracting data,” the Petaluma-based organization says. The General Services Administration plans to eliminate the socio-economic field, "Small Business Flag," on all historical and future contracting data.

In the past, the Government Accountability Office, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General and other agencies have used the small business flag to uncover large businesses that have misrepresented themselves as small businesses to illegally receive federal small business contracts.

The ASBL says it is preparing to use the data in the small business flag field to launch civil and criminal action against large businesses that had received federal small business contracts fraudulently.

"There is absolutly no reason to destroy historical contracting data," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman says. "This is just the latest attempt by the government to reduce transparency and cover up the fact that large businesses have received billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts.”

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