Petaluma, Calif. – In 2005, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA OIG) released Report 5-15, which referred to the diversion of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to corporate giants as, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the entire federal government today." (https://www.asbl.com/documents/05-15.pdf)  

Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found that legitimate small businesses have lost billions of dollars in federal small business contracts, which have been diverted to many of the largest firms around the world.

During his campaign President Obama promised to halt the rampant abuses and released the statement, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." (http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)  

On August 21, 2009, the Obama Administration released the latest statistics on the volume of federal contracts awarded to small businesses. The fact that the Obama Administration's small business data is littered with the names of thousands of corporate giants from around the world is an obvious indication that President Obama has gone back on his campaign promise.

The Obama Administration is claiming that the government awarded $93.3 billion in contracts to small businesses or 21.5 percent during fiscal year (FY) 2008.

According to information from the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG), of the ten largest recipients of federal small business contracts, 85.4 percent of total contract dollars went to large businesses. Eight of the top ten recipients were large businesses.

The top recipient of federal small business contracts was Textron with $775 million. Textron is a Fortune 500 firm with 43,000 employees and over $14 billion in annual revenue.

Two other top ten recipients, Ssangyong Corporation headquartered in Seoul, South Korea received over $254 million in small business contracts and Finmeccanica SpA, headquartered in Italy with 73,000 employees and received over $283 million.

The 14th largest recipient of federal small business contracts is listed as, "Miscellaneous Foreign Contractors" with $210 million in government small business contracts.

Other firms included in the Obama Administration's small business data were Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, AT&T, 3M Corporation, Xerox, Dell Computer, Booz Allen Hamilton, Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Staples, Office Depot, British Aerospace (BAE), Rolls-Royce and French firm Thales.

The American Small Business League estimates that the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants pulls over $100 billion a year from the middle class economy.

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Please click here to watch our response to the Obama Administration's small business contracting statistics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--8klfQQmsA