SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has ordered the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to release to the American Small Business League (ASBL) a draft report on the awarding of government contracts. The SBA report describes how large companies are improperly winning contracts in the Federal government's $60-plus billion small business contracting program.

'What is in this report that the SBA doesn't want the public to know?' asked Lloyd Chapman, president of the ASBL. 'Instead of spending six months in court trying to suppress evidence, the SBA should be working to stop big corporations from stealing small business contracts.'

In her April 29 ruling, Judge Susan Illston strongly rejected SBA arguments that the draft report was protected by exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and ordered the SBA to produce the report within 21 days. The ASBL has been working for the release of the report for nine months.

The Small Business Act of 1953 directs that at least 23 percent of federal government prime contracts go to small business. But a host of abuses and loopholes allow large companies to get many of these contracts.

The report in question was prepared by Eagle Eye Publishers and delivered to the SBA on November 14, 2003. ASBL submitted a FOIA request to the SBA on July 6, 2004, asking for a copy of the report. The SBA refused, citing FOIA exemptions. The SBA released an edited version of the report on December 28, 2004, acknowledging that small business contracts had gone to such 'small businesses' as Raytheon Co., BAE Systems, Northrop Grumann Corp., Carlyle Group, Electronic Data Systems Corp., Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Buhrmann NV.

Although the edited version of the report released in December listed only 44 large companies receiving small business contracts in fiscal year 2002, the SBA in 2003 removed nearly 600 large businesses from its small business database after an ASBL investigation discovered them.

Investigations by the General Accounting Office, SBA Office of Inspector General and Center for Public Integrity have found fraud, misrepresentation and loopholes allowing large businesses to receive billions in federal small business contracts.