PETALUMA, Calif., April 6, 2006 /PRNewswire/ Small business owners across the country have begun to voice their concerns that the General Services Administration is about to propose policies which would allow billions of dollars in small business contracts to be diverted to large firms. Under the guise of "improving efficiency", the GSA has announced that they are beginning their review for an update of the GSA Acquisition Regulation (GSAR), or the regulatory part of the GSA's Acquisition Manual.

There are a number of areas being reviewed in the GSAR that address the interests of small and disadvantaged businesses, minority, women and veteran-owned firms. The GSA is not specific about how they plan to "streamline" the regulations that pertain to these entities. Because government personnel and industry have been asked to submit suggestions, many small business owners fear that regulations that currently protect their participation in the procurement process will be eliminated or altered to create loopholes that will exclude them.

"I'm very concerned that the GSA is going to do what they've always done which is to implement policies that will allow Federal agencies and prime contractors to report contracts to large companies as small business awards," stated Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League. "I also foresee that the GSA will attempt to disallow any comments they receive that do not agree with their goal of diverting contracts to large businesses. My experience has been that the government manipulates this process in order to achieve its own ends."

Although seven Federal investigations have uncovered fraud and abuse in small business contracting, none of the areas that the GSA is proposing to change address the significant problems that allow this to happen.