Americantaxpayers are being bamboozled by their government to the tune of at least atrillion dollars, says a small business advocate and long-time critic of theSmall Business Administration.

LloydChapman, founder of the American Small Business League, says even without fulldisclosure by the government, the SBA's own figures point to something rottenin government contracting.

"Ithink we're going to uncover … trillions in fraud," Mr. Chapman says. "Notmillions, not billions, but trillions."

Hesays data from the Congressional Budget Office and the Federal Procurement DataSystem indicate the Small Business Administration falsified the federalgovernment's compliance with the 23 percent small business contracting goal forfiscal year 2016.

Mr.Chapman points to a May 18 press release in which the SBA claimed smallbusinesses had received $99.96 billion in federal contracts and 24.34 percentof all federal contracts awarded in fiscal year 2016.

TheSmall Business Act mandates small businesses receive a minimum of 23 percent ofall federal contracts.

Here'swhere Mr. Chapman's arithmetic differs from the SBA's: The Congressional BudgetOffice reports the total federal acquisition budget for 2016 was $1.2 trillion.

Hesays 23 percent of the $1.2 trillion the federal government actually awarded incontracts for fiscal year 2016 would be approximately $276 billion.

Toreach its number, the SBA had to exclude $790 billion in federal contracts fromtheir calculations, Mr. Chapman says.

Mr. Chapman says the only way toget the federal government to listen seems to be to clonk it over the head withfederal lawsuits – which he has done numerous times.

"I've got a trial against thePentagon [on] December 11 of this year," he says of his latest lawsuit. Hecontends that much of the tax dollars supposedly going to small business hasactually been funneled into large corporations and even foreign firms,including a Russian arms seller.

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