PETALUMA, Calif., May 18, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The White House has still not announced a new datefor a major event that was abruptly canceled on the last day of National SmallBusiness Week.

The largest White House event in history to celebrate theannouncement of the government's annual Small Business Procurement Scorecardwas abruptlycanceled just hours before it was planned to begin. The event was to be ledby Small Business Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweetand was to be attended by several members of the Presidents Cabinet and othersenior Obama Administration officials. 

The original date for the event was Friday,May 8, but the White House suddenly announced the event had beencanceled late Thursday afternoon. Washington Business Journal journalist Kent Hoover released an article on Fridaytitled, "It's time for the SBA to get real about small businesscontracting numbers." He reported the event was abruptly canceledapproximately an hour after he contacted the SBA Press Office, headed by Terry Sutherland, and requested the names ofthe top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts. Hoover alsonotified the SBA "he planned to ask Contreras-Sweet about what the agencyhad done to ensure their small business contracting numbers wereaccurate."

The sudden cancellation of the event may have been to reducemedia attention on the fact the majority of the top 100 recipients of federalsmall business contracts were actually Fortune 500 firms, their subsidiaries andother large businesses.

The decision to cancel the event may have also been based on therelease of an embarrassing investigative report on Wednesday, by PubicCitizen titled "Slighted" with the subtitle "Accounting TricksCreate False Impression That Small Businesses Are Getting Their Fair Share ofFederal Procurement Money, and the Political Factors That Might Be atPlay."

The report was prompted by research done by the American Small Business League (ASBL) that has found every yearof the Obama Administration the vast majority of the top100 recipients of federal small business contracts were actually corporategiants and large businesses. ASBL President Lloyd Chapmanwas interviewed for the report.

The House Small Business Committee has unanimously adopted an amendment requesting a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation intofraud in federal small business contracting based on research done by Chapman'sASBL.

The first GAO investigation into small business contractingfraud in 2002 was also based on research by Lloyd Chapman.A February 2003 article inWashington Technology reported, "In December, the General AccountingOffice began its own investigation based on information Chapman provided, said Dave Cooper, Director of GAO's Acquisitionand Sourcing Management Office."

SBA Press Office Director Terry Sutherlandhas refused to speak with anyone from the press since the sudden cancellationof the White House Small Business Procurement Scorecard event, and no new datehas yet to be announced.

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