To JD Harrison: The info that you and Lloyd talked about today 

5-14 Summary: The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an evaluation to determine whether small business procurement awards reported by the Small Business Administration (SBA) in Fiscal Years (FY) 2001 and 2002 were indeed awarded to companies that were small at the time of the award. https://www.asbl.com/documents/05-14.pdf

5-15 Summary: As the advocate for small business, the Small Business Administration (SBA) should strive to ensure that only small firms obtain small business awards and agencies only receive small business credit for awards to small firms. Too often, however, this is not the case. https://www.asbl.com/documents/05-15.pdf

5-16 Summary: A review of the propriety of small business certifications and whether certain contractors who received small business contracts were indeed small. https://www.asbl.com/documents/05-16.pdf

Eagle Eye Report Summary: A review of the transaction records coded as being awarded to small businesses in the Individual Contract Action Report (ICAR) file identified large vendors as some of the actual recipients. http://archive.sba.gov/advo/research/rs246tot.pdf

GAO 10-108 "By failing to hold firms accountable, SBA and contracting agencies have sent a message to the contracting community that there is no punishment or consequences for committing fraud," http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10108.pdf

SBA OIG Semi-Annual Report to Congress, spring 2013.  On page one of this report: "The Agency faces a number of challenges in carrying out its mission, including fraudulent schemes affecting all SBA programs…" http://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/SBA%20OIG%20_Spring_%202013_SAR.pdf

SBA Myth VS Fact: “Several things are happening here, but large businesses taking contracts that have been set aside for small business isn’t a real factor.” – The SBA  https://www.asbl.com/documents/sbamythvfact.pdf

Semi Annual Report to Congress 1995 - “Over the past few years, the Investigations Division has noted several instances of a particular fraudulent practice: companies that SBA, after sustaining protests against them, had prohibited from representing themselves as small businesses, under a particular SIC code, were continuing to falsely certify themselves as eligible for small business set-aside contracts.” https://www.asbl.com/documents/SBA_OIG_Sem-annual_sept_1995.pdf

Department of Interior OIG Report July 2008 - "The contracting officers were able to make their own determinations regarding business size. In one case, GSA had correctly determined that the vendor was a large business, yet the DOI contracting officer was able to erroneously record it as an SBA set-aside to a small business. A contracting officer told us that they had recently received training regarding the proper entry of GSA acquisitions as delivery orders, rather than purchase orders." http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/files/2008/07/2008-g-00241.pdf

ASBL vs. the US Small Business Administration August, 2008- "The court finds curious the SBA’s argument that it does not “control” the very information it needs to carry out its duties and functions." https://www.asbl.com/documents/26-2.pdf

Sizing Things Up – under Fire for Giving Away too many Contracts to Big Business, the SBA Fights Back - http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/79806 - “Depending on whom you talk to, Texas-born small-business advocate Lloyd Chapman is either a modern-day Cesar Chavez or a conspiracy theorist with a grudge. Either way, as the SBA has learned, he's become hard to ignore”

Note from Lloyd to JD- Here’s all the things we talked about on our phone call today.  So in summary, clearly, the SBA Inspector General has been finding fraud in these programs since 1995 when they found “the particular fraudulent practice” and the SBA Administrators refused to circulate a list of companies that had misrepresented themselves. The Inspector General has named this the #1 problem in federal government for nine consecutive years and the SBA still has done nothing about it. I hope your story will mention that the ASBL is the only organization in the country that has been on TV, going to court, issuing press releases and blogs about this. And I hope your story mentions that no one else in the country has fought harder to end these abuses than me. Help me recover my reputation. The SBA has spent lots of money trying to convince people that I’m a conspiracy nut. Of course, you and I know that I’m not. I hope your story will mention the fact that I wrote a bill called, HR1622, The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act, which will clear this problem up. It’s in the House Committee on Small Business and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform right now. This is the third time it’s been introduced into congress. I can’t think of any reason why this bill shouldn’t be passed into law. So I hope your story reflects what they found in 2008 that of the $89 billion that the SBA said went to small businesses, about $33 billion went to Fortune 500 firms alone. And this has gone on for a decade. But your story could have a huge impact here in America and maybe be the factor that gets the bill passed and stops this rampant abuse against the middle class. Remember why this is important, small business create all the jobs and this is largest federal program in history to help the middle class and to help small businesses create jobs.

Lacie Schwarz

PR Specialist

American Small Business League

707.789.9575

lschwarz@asbl.com