ASBL: Fortune 500 Firms are Small Businesses According to New SBA Report

Press Release

ASBL: Fortune 500 Firms are Small Businesses According to New SBA Report

American Small Business League
April 27, 2016

In a press release on Monday, theSmall Business Administration (SBA) announcedthey will finally be releasing the Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecardfor FY2015 on Thursday.

Despite a series of federal investigations andinvestigative reports, which found 151 Fortune 500 firmsand their subsidiaries received federal small business contracts in FY2015, SBA'sJohn Shoraka, is already claiming"This certainly is the best data set we've had in history."

However, the SBA has had a historyof inflating their "best" data to reach aminimum goal of 23% of the total value of all federal contracts to smallbusinesses. In May 2015, a report from PublicCitizen questioned the SBA's past data as being falsified to misrepresentthe true volume of federal contracts awarded to small businesses.

The American Small BusinessLeague (ASBL) predicts the SBA will inflate the numbers, asthey customarily do, in two strategic ways. First, to inflate the percentage the SBA will usea number that is less than a third of the actual federal acquisition budget.According to the latest data from theCongressional Budget Office, the 2015 total federal acquisition budget was overa trillion dollars, yet the SBA used their "eligible" dollar figure of  $352 billion to inflate the percentage. Secondly, the SBA has always includedbillionsof dollars in contracts to some of the biggest companies around the worldin their numbers. One of America's leading experts on federal contracting law, Professor Charles Tiefer,found no federal law allowing large businesses to be considered smallbusinesses.

Every year since being appointed by the Obama Administration, the SBAInspector General, Peggy Gustafson, has named the diversion of federal smallbusiness contracts to corporate giants as "One of the most important challenges facing the SmallBusiness Administration and the entire Federal Government today."

Even President Obama acknowledged the magnitude of the problem when he released thestatement, "It is time to end thediversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."

Thursday's release of the small business contracting data will likely revealthat billions of dollars in small business contracts were diverted to largebusinesses during Fiscal Year 2015. The American Small Business Leagueestimates that small businesses have already been cheated by as much as 2 trillion dollars over the past 10 years.

"I think the Washington media ispartly responsible because the fraudwas first exposed in 2002, and yet, not one journalist in 15 years has everasked the Small Business Administration to show the section of the SmallBusiness Act which would allow the inclusion of Fortune 500 firms under smallbusiness subcontracting data," stated ASBL President Lloyd Chapman.

 ASBL President Lloyd Chapman has beenrecognized as one of the fourstrongest voices for small businesses for his efforts to end fraud in smallbusiness contracting.

This summer, the American SmallBusiness League is expected to release a feature length documentary on the historyof corruption and fraud at the Small Business Administration.

To view full press release, clickhere: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/asbl-fortune-500-firms-are-small-businesses-according-to-new-sba-report-300258372.html

 


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