PETALUMA, Calif., April 15, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/-- The House Small Business Committee has unanimously adopted an amendment thatwould initiate a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into fraud andabuse in federal small business contracting programs. The purpose of theinvestigation is to find out why billions ofdollars a year in federal small business contracts are being diverted toFortune 500 firms.

Congresswoman Janice Hahnwrote the amendment based on research done by Lloyd Chapman'sAmerican Small Business League (ASBL).On March 25, 2015, Hahn issued a press release expressing her concerns on theproblem.

The last GAO investigation into fraud and abuse in federalsmall business contracting programs, which was also based on informationprovided by Chapman, was completed in 2003.

A February 2003 story in Washington Technology reported,"The General Accounting Office began its own investigation based oninformation Chapman provided," stated by GAO executive, Dave Cooper.

Chapman provided information to the GAO in2002 that uncovered thousands of corporategiants were receiving federal small business contracts. The GAOinvestigation found over 5,300 large businesses were the actual recipients offederal small business contracts.

Chapman has won a series of Freedom of Information Act cases thatuncoveredwidespread fraud in federal small businesscontracting programs. The government was forced to release thousands ofpages of documents that proved Fortune 500 firms were the actual recipients offederal contracts that the SBA reported as contracts awarded to smallbusinesses.

In Report 5-15 the SBA Inspector General described thediversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants as, "Oneof the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration (SBA)and the entire Federal Government today."

At the end of last year the House SmallBusiness Committee chastised SBA's Administrator, MariaContreras-Sweet, for including dozens of Fortune 500companies and other large businesses in their FY2013small business contracting data.

During his first campaign, President Obama released thestatement, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small businesscontracts to corporate giants."

ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News and RTTV allreleased reports on the diversion of federal small business contracts tocorporate giants.

Some of the firms that were uncoveredreceiving federal small business contracts included, IBM, Hewlett-Packard,Oracle, Microsoft, Rolls-Royce, Walmart, Disney, Apple, Chevron, Bank ofAmerica, British Aerospace Engineering (BAE), Raytheon, Lockheed Martin,Verizon, AT&T and Northrop Grumman.

"Congresswoman Hahn's amendment could bring an end to therampant fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs thathave cheated legitimate small businesses out of hundreds of billions over thelast few years. Being an advocate for small business is not a popular stance inWashington these days andCongresswoman Hahn has demonstrated a great deal of courage and integrity inrequesting a new GAO investigation into this very serious problem," statedLloydChapman, President of the American Small Business League.

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