The nation's smallbusinesses are being "cheated" because of serious flaws within thefederal procurement process, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said this week.

In a letter that Vitter wroteto Maria Contreras-Sweet, administrator of the Small Business Administration,he slammed her agency for discrepancies within the recent annual procurementscorecard, which outlines the proportion of federal contracts going towardsmall businesses.

The Small Business Actrequires that, of the federal government contracts awarded each year, 23 percentmust go to small businesses. But, in Vitter's estimation, a number ofineligible firms are being factored in to hit the requirement. He also accusesthe SBA of skirting any explanation of the figures and putting off an event torelease the latest scorecard.

"Serious flawsundoubtedly exist in calculating and accurately reporting the number ofgovernment contracts annually awarded to small businesses," writes Vitter,who is also chairman of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee. "Simplyignoring the problem does nothing to help small businesses. Withouttransparency and accountability in the process, the numbers aremeaningless."

His letter recounts that in2013, the Obama administration reportedly met the 23 percent benchmark, thefirst time that goal was reached in eight years. Yet later it was discoveredthat $400 million in federal contracts were awarded to firms that are noteligible to be considered small businesses under the law.

For the fiscal year 2014numbers, the federal government's "Small Business Dashboard"indicates that a whopping 25 percent of government-wide contracts went to smallbusinesses. That percent would be a record amount…

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