PETALUMA, Calif., May 15 (UPI) --The U.S.Department of Defense is being sued by the American Small Business League forfailure to produce requested sub-contracting data.

The suit,filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco, pertains to subcontractingdata on Sikorsky Aircraft under the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan TestProgram. The organization had requested the information under the Freedom ofInformation Act.

Under theSubcontracting Plan Test Program, 15 of the Pentagon's top prime contractorsdon't have to submit quarterly subcontracting reports that would otherwise beavailable to the public, ASBL said. The contractors can also avoid anypenalties for not complying with the small business contracting goals mandatedby the government.

The AmericanSmall Business League alleges that the plan enables "prime contractors tocheat" legitimate small businesses out of federal contracts.

"This isthe biggest scam in the history of federal contracting at the Pentagon and weplan to shut it down," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said in announcing thesuit. "You can just imagine what happened to the volume of sub-contractsawarded to small businesses once these prime contractors no longer had tosubmit reports that were available to the public.

"Therewere no negative consequences for failing to achieve their small businesscontracting goals. I believe the level of fraud and corruption this lawsuitwill expose will be unprecedented," Chapman added.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2014/05/15/Pentagon-sued-by-American-Small-Business-League-over-FOIA-request/9441400172535/#ixzz31pNgl98d