PETALUMA, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 2,2014) - According to the American Small Business League, the latest data fromthe Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) shows 175 Fortune 500 firms receivedbillions of dollars in federal small business contracts in 2013. In 2012, 235 Fortune 500 firms received small businesscontracts.

Some of the firms the Small BusinessAdministration (SBA) has included in their small business contractingstatistics include: Chevron, Apple, General Electric, AT&T, HewlettPackard, IBM, Verizon, UPS, Bank of America, Citigroup, Home Depot, Microsoft,Wells Fargo, Pepsi, Boeing, Oracle, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, AmericanAirlines and John Deere.

A recent legal opinion by one of thenation's leading experts on federal contracting law, Professor Charles Tiefer,describes the federal government's diversion of small business contracts tocorporate giants as "fraud." He also points out the lack of oversighton small business contracting when he stated, "SBA and the agency arefailing to demand recertifications, and failing to take action in the absenceof valid certifications of continuing small size."

As early as 1995, the SBA Office ofInspector General reported on "a particular fraudulent practice" whenfirms that had been found not to be small businesses continued to claim to besmall businesses to illegally land federal small business contracts.

A 2004 report from the Small BusinessAdministration Office of Advocacy describes one of the reasons large businessesreceive federal small business contracts is due to "vendordeception."

In 2005 the SBA Office of InspectorGeneral released report 5-16 that reported large businesses were receivingfederal small business contracts through, "false certifications" and"improper certifications."

Report 5-15 from the SBA Office ofInspector General described the diversion of billions of dollars in federalsmall business contracts to corporate giants as, "One of the most importantchallenges facing the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the entirefederal government today..."

Report 5-14 from the SBA Office ofInspector General found the SBA itself was reporting awards to big businessesas small business awards.

In 2008 even President Obama recognizedthe magnitude of fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programswhen he released the statement, "It is time to end the diversion of federal smallbusiness contracts to corporate giants."

President Obama never adopted anypolicies or legislation to keep his campaign promise to American small businesses.Every year of the Obama Administration, the SBA Inspector General, PegGustafson, who was appointed by President Obama, has named the diversion offederal small business contracts to big businesses as the number one problem atthe SBA.

In 2009 the Government AccountabilityOffice essentially accused the SBA of encouraging fraud when it released Report10-108 that stated, "By failing to hold firmsaccountable, SBA and contracting agencies have sent a message to thecontracting community that there is no punishment or consequences forcommitting fraud."

As opposed to adopting policies thatstop the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants, theSBA has proposed new policies that will allow thousands of large businesses to qualify as smallbusinesses.

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