The US government has been accused of awarding a $28.5m business contract reserved for a "small business" to the Fortune 500 firm General Dynamics.

The American Small Business League (ASBL) claims that the most recent data from the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG) shows that General Dynamics is "just one of hundreds of corporate giants" that are currently receiving federal small business contracts from the Obama administration.

Since 2003, twenty-five federal investigations have uncovered the diversion of billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to corporate giants, ASBL argues.

The pressure group notes that, in Report 5-15, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA OIG) referred to the issue as: "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire federal government today."

According to ASBL, more than $100 billion in federal small business contracts are diverted annually away from legitimate small businesses and into the hands of some of the largest corporations in the world. The most recent data, it claims, shows that firms counted as small businesses included: Xerox, Bechtel, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, British Aerospace (BAE) and Ssangyong Corporation.

"In May of 2009, Congressman Hank Johnson (D-4-GA) introduced H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act. If passed the bill would halt the flow of federal small business contracts to large businesses and redirect more than $100 billion a year in federal infrastructure spending to legitimate small businesses," according to ASBL.

Source:  http://www.procurementleaders.com/news/latestnews/419-general-dynamics-cashes-in/