PETALUMA, Calif., May 12, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Obama Administration confirmed that SBA Administrator MariaContreras-Sweet was going to announce they exceeded thegovernment's 23% small business contracting goal at a White House evenscheduled for the final day of National Small Business Week. The event whichwas scheduled for Friday afternoon, May 8, was abruptlycanceled after journalists began to suggest the data might have beenfabricated.

The American Small Business League (ASBL) has accused the SmallBusiness Administration of falsifying their annual small business contracting numbersfor over a decade. Now Public Citizen and longtime Washington Business Journaljournalist Kent Hoover have joined the ASBL inchallenging the accuracy of the SBA's annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard. 

Hoover released a story on Friday that reported shortly after he contactedthe SBA Thursday afternoon and requested a list of the top 100 recipients offederal small business contracts for 2014, the SBA announced the event wasabruptly canceled. Obama Administration officials may have panicked over thepossibility Hoover would be asking the SBA Administrator to explain why Fortune500 firms continued to be included in the SBA's small business contracting datafor over 15 years.

A series of federal investigations and investigativereports in the media have found every year for over a decade the SBA has included billions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500firms and their subsidiaries in their annul small business contractingdata. 

Hoover's inquiry came on the heels of an investigative report by government watchdog group, PublicCitizen, which found the SBA's small business contracting numbers had beenfabricated and significantly inflated. The Public Citizen report was basedheavily on research done by the Californiabased American Small Business League and interviews with the group's President Lloyd Chapman.

Public Citizen Research Director, TaylorLincoln, acknowledged SBA Press Office Director Terry Sutherland refused to speak with himover the phone or respond to any questions as to why Fortune 500 firmscontinued to receive federal small business contracts. Sutherland also refusedto explain the SBA's excuse that "miscoding" has diverted smallbusiness contracts to Fortune 500 firms for over 15 years or provide theprovisions of the Small Business Act the SBA uses to justify their"exclusionary rule" or their "five yearrule."  

"It's obvious the White Housecompletely panicked at the possibility that for the first time in historyan SBA Administrator might have to actually explain why the SBA has cheatedAmerican small businesses out of billions for over 15 years by divertingfederal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms. I still expect PresidentObama will attemptto close the SBA to cover up this blatant fraud," stated ASBLPresident Lloyd Chapman.

It is unclear if and when the White House will reschedule theevent.

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