An investigation by Democrats in the House of Representatives that called into question Small Business Administration statistics on meeting its small business quotas for federal contracts should madden hard-working small businesses.

The investigation shows some of the nation's largest businesses received small business contracts. Some $12 billion in contracts the government said it gave to small businesses went instead to companies such as Microsoft, Rolls Royce and even The New York Times.

The report was confirmed by documents obtained from the General Accountability Office and the Small Business Administration's Office of Inspector General, according to the Office of Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

The Small Business Association last month reported the federal government awarded 25.3 percent of its $314 billion in contracts to small businesses, defined as those with fewer than 500 employees.

But Democratic investigators say when the contracts to the large companies are taken out of the statistics, the government missed for the sixth year in a row its goal to award 23 percent of contracts to small businesses.

The report says many businesses were simply misclassified by the agencies that awarded the contracts. Others grew into big businesses and were acquired by big businesses.

Many of the companies, including The New York Times, blamed the government.

"Since we do not categorize The New York Times as a small business, clearly this was an error," Times spokeswoman Abbe Serphos told the Associated Press, a cooperative with 3,700 employees and also a recipient of some small business contracts.

Most of the contracts to the big businesses were in the $10,000 to $20,000 range, but taken together added up to a lot of business that could have gone to legitimate small businesses.

Most small businesses applying to be considered for small business contracts work hard to file all the necessary paperwork, negotiate the red tape and get the deals done.

Unfortunately, the people in charge of making the correct determinations are not working as hard.

Snowe passed legislation shortly after the report came out last week to improve the system of awarding small business contracts.

The chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship pushed a bill through her committee by an 18-0 margin that will increase federal government power to prosecute and suspend large corporations posing as small ones for purposes of obtaining the government contracts.

The legislation may be a good start, but federal agencies should step up their oversight of these issues. It shouldn't be difficult to tell if a company has 500 or fewer employees.