PETALUMA, Calif., Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The Small Business Administration released the highly controversial 2004 federal small business contracting statistics on Thursday, August 25, 2005. The SBA is claiming $69.23 billion dollars or 23.09 percent in federal contracts had been awarded to small businesses during fiscal year 2004.

The latest SBA small business statistics ignore the findings of seven separate government investigations and two private studies that have all concluded the SBA has dramatically overstated the governments true level of contracts with small businesses by reporting billions in awards to many of the largest firms in the country as small business awards.

A 2004 investigation by the SBA's own Office of Advocacy found the SBA had reported billions in awards to such firms as Hewlett-Packard, Northrop-Grumman, Titan Industries, Raytheon and Burhmann, a Dutch firms with 18,000 employees, as small business awards. The report concluded "vendor deception" was one of the reasons for the dramatic abuses.

The SBA's own Office of Inspector General has released the results of three investigations in the past year that found the SBA has intentionally included awards to large businesses in their small business contracting statistics. Report 5-14 was prompted by a request from Senator John Kerry. It stated "The SBA awarded four of the six high dollar procurements, reported as small business procurements, to large companies at the time of the procurements."

SBA Inspector General report 5-15 stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal Government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards…"

Report 5-16 was prompted by information provide by Lloyd Chapman, President of the California based, American Small Business League. It concluded the SBA had allowed large businesses to receive small business contracts through "false certifications".

Chapman said, "The SBA has intentionally inflated the 2004 small business statistics in two ways. They have understated the actual federal acquisition budget by up to 100 billion dollars to make the percentage look larger than it actually is. They have also included billions in awards to Fortune 1000 firms and other large businesses in their small business statistics. Their own Inspector General has caught them falsifying the numbers."

An investigation by the Washington DC based, Center for Public Integrity concluded the SBA had reported over 47 billion in awards by the Department of Defense to some of the nations top defense contractors as small business awards.

QUESTIONS FOR THE SBA
Gary Jackson 202-205-6464

Has the SBA included awards to any Fortune 1000 firms or their subsidiaries in the 2004 small business statistics?

Do the 2004 small business statistics include awards to any of the 600 large businesses the SBA was forced to remove from your small business vendor database in 2003?

Are any awards to the 44 large businesses that were uncovered in the SBA Office of Advocacy (Eagle Eye) report included in the 2004 small business contracting statistics?

Are any firms included in the 2004 small business contracting statistics would not qualify today for new small business contracts?

Is it true that until December of 2004, the SBA allowed large businesses that acquired small businesses to keep their small business status for up to 20 years?

In the past the SBA has claimed "miscoding" and "computer glitches" were responsible for large businesses being included in small business contracting statistics. Do the 2004 statistics include any firms that were "miscoded" as small businesses in the past?

Do the 2004 small business statistics include awards to any foreign owned firms?

Do the 2004 small business statistics include awards to the multi-billion dollar Dutch firm Buhrmann or any of their subsidiaries?

Are any awards to the four large businesses the SBA Inspector General found the SBA reported as small businesses in report 5-14 included in the 2004 small business statistics?

The SBA Office of Inspector General found fraud in small business contracting as early as 1995 and again this year the Inspector General found firms were still making "false certifications" to receive small business contracts. Can you provide me with a list of the firms that have been prosecuted for small business contracting fraud?