PETALUMA, Calif., May 12, 2015
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Obama Administration confirmed that SBA Administrator Maria
Contreras-Sweet was going to announce they exceeded the
government's 23% small business contracting goal at a White House even
scheduled for the final day of National Small Business Week. The event which
was scheduled for Friday afternoon, May 8, was abruptly
canceled after journalists began to suggest the data might have been
fabricated.
The American Small Business League (ASBL) has accused the Small
Business Administration of falsifying their annual small business contracting numbers
for over a decade. Now Public Citizen and longtime Washington Business Journal
journalist Kent Hoover have joined the ASBL in
challenging the accuracy of the SBA's annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard.
Hoover released a story on Friday that reported shortly after he contacted
the SBA Thursday afternoon and requested a list of the top 100 recipients of
federal small business contracts for 2014, the SBA announced the event was
abruptly canceled. Obama Administration officials may have panicked over the
possibility Hoover would be asking the SBA Administrator to explain why Fortune
500 firms continued to be included in the SBA's small business contracting data
for over 15 years.
A series of federal investigations and investigative
reports in the media have found every year for over a decade the SBA has included billions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500
firms and their subsidiaries in their annul small business contracting
data.
Hoover's inquiry came on the heels of an investigative report by government watchdog group, Public
Citizen, which found the SBA's small business contracting numbers had been
fabricated and significantly inflated. The Public Citizen report was based
heavily on research done by the California
based American Small Business League and interviews with the group's President Lloyd Chapman.
Public Citizen Research Director, Taylor
Lincoln, acknowledged SBA Press Office Director Terry Sutherland refused to speak with him
over the phone or respond to any questions as to why Fortune 500 firms
continued to receive federal small business contracts. Sutherland also refused
to explain the SBA's excuse that "miscoding" has diverted small
business contracts to Fortune 500 firms for over 15 years or provide the
provisions of the Small Business Act the SBA uses to justify their
"exclusionary rule" or their "five year
rule."
"It's obvious the White House
completely panicked at the possibility that for the first time in history
an SBA Administrator might have to actually explain why the SBA has cheated
American small businesses out of billions for over 15 years by diverting
federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms. I still expect President
Obama will attempt
to close the SBA to cover up this blatant fraud," stated ASBL
President Lloyd Chapman.
It is unclear if and when the White House will reschedule the
event.
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