Yesterday the Washington Post released its most recent story claiming “errors and exclusions” are responsible for hundreds of billions in federal small business contracts being diverted to Fortune 1000 firms and thousands of large businesses for over a decade.

The obvious issue of why the supposed random “mistakes” and “errors” have diverted small business funds to big businesses every year for over a decade was conspicuously absent.

In a 2008 story the Washington Post used the word “mistakes” in the title to explain why their own detailed analysis of federal contracting data found over 38 percent of contracts reported as small business awards actually went to large businesses. The Washington Post used a sample of $13 billion out of the total of $89 billion the Small Business Administration (SBA) claimed had gone to small businesses that year. Of the $13 billion dollar sample, they found approximately $5 billion, or more than 38 percent had actually gone to large businesses.

One glaring and questionable omission in the 2008 story is the 38 percent found in the sample was never applied to the total $89 billion. The Washington Post never mentioned that based on their own sample, at least $33 billion in small business contracts actually went to thousands of large businesses including Fortune 500 firms.

Neither Monday’s story nor the 2008 story mentioned the Washington Post was aware the SBA’s own Office of Inspector General reported in 2005 in report 5-16 that the SBA had counted contracts towards the 23 percent goal that large businesses had obtained fraudulently through “false certifications” and “improper certifications.” The Washington Post also knew about a similar investigation from the SBA Office of Advocacy that found the SBA included contracts to large businesses in their small business contracting data that had been obtained fraudulently through “vendor deception.” The Washington Post also failed to mention the SBA had adopted a “grandfathering policy” that was in direct contradiction to any and all federal law regarding the definition of a small business in order to intentionally divert hundreds of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to many of the largest firms in the U.S.

In their latest story, the Washington Post uses the word “errors” to explain why every year for over a decade billions in federal small business contracts have been diverted to many of the largest firms in the world.

The Washington Post knew but failed to mention that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) essentially accused the SBA of encouraging fraud in report GAO 10-108 which stated, “By failing to hold firms accountable the SBA and contracting agencies have sent a message to the contracting community that there is no punishment or consequences for committing fraud.”

For the ASBL’s latest video, click here.

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