One of the most persistent critics of the federal Small Business Administration has sent a farewell message to outgoing SBA director Hector V. Barreto and it isn't pretty.

The American Small Business League said in a statement that the agency is a "gutted shell" after five years under Barreto's administration.

"The SBA's dismal performance has been chronicled in 10 federal investigations and two private studies that uncovered fraud, abuse, and lack of proper oversight in virtually every major SBA program," the organization said.

Among the litany of allegations, the group noted that the SBA had inflated statistics by reporting billions of dollars in contracts to small businesses, when, in fact, they were large companies; failed to properly monitor major federal "bundled" contracts; failed to implement the women's procurement program; and made a mess of relief efforts after hurricane disasters in the Gulf Coast region.