PETALUMA,Calif., July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An article released byMother Jones journalist Josh Harkinson has exposed rampant fraud at the SmallBusiness Administration (SBA). The article reveals illegal SBA practices thathave defrauded American small businesses out of hundreds of billions of dollarsin federal contracts and subcontracts. Harkinson's article is titled, GiantCorporations Are Reaping Billions From Federal "Small Business"Contracts.

Forseveral years the SBA Press Office has declined to speak directly withjournalists and will only respond to written questions. In 2003, the GovernmentAccountability Office (GAO) released a scathing investigationthat found legitimate small businesses had been cheatedout of billions of dollars when federal agencies had diverted federal smallbusiness contracts to over 5,300 large businesses.

In2003, the SBA initiallyacknowledged the actual volume of federal contracts to small businesses hadbeen dramatically inflated,but that admission soon changed to excuses of miscoding and computer glitchesas the reason for why many of the largest firms in the world were listed in theSBA's database of small businesses.

TheSBA has never been able to explain why every year for over 15 years theiralleged miscoding, computer glitches,anomalies and simple human error have always diverted federal smallbusiness contracts to corporate giants, while at the same time dramaticallyinflating the volume of federal contracts that appear to have beenawarded to legitimate small businesses.

TheSBA was unable to provide Harkinson with the language in the Small BusinessAct that they use to justify reporting federalcontracts to Fortune 500 firms as small business awards. They werealso unable to provide any language from the Small Business Act that wouldallow the SBA to exclude the majority of the total federal acquisition budgetin calculating the percentage of all federal contracts awarded to smallbusinesses.

TheAmerican Small Business League (ASBL) estimates that overthe last decade legitimate small business may have been cheated out of over two trillion dollarsin federal contracts and subcontracts as a result of illegalpolicies that have been used by the SBA and federal agencies.

Everyyear for the last eleven years, the SBA Office of Inspector General has namedthe diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as the number one problem at the agency.

PresidentObama recognized the magnitudeof the fraud and abuse against small businesses when he released the statement,"It is time toend the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."

Mostrecently the GSA has proposed a new policythat will excludethousands of current small businesses from continuing to receivefederal contracts. Language in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act willfurther reducefederal contracting opportunities for small businesses.

TheAmerican Small Business League has file for an injunctionagainst the SBA in Federal District Court in San Francisco to halt the illegalpolicies they used to defraud legitimate small businesses out of billions ofdollars in federal contracts each year.

The American Small Business Leagueplans to release a full-length documentary that will chronicle the history ofcorruption and fraud in federal small business contracting programs.

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