GSA Accused of Fabricating Small Business Contracting Statistics by Including Billions to Fortune 500 Firms
Petaluma, Calif. – Yesterday, the General Services Administration (GSA) issued a press release stating that the agency had exceeded all of its small business contracting goals, with the exception of the congressionally mandated 3 percent goal for Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses.
The GSA failed to mention in its press release on its increased small business contracting numbers, that most of the money actually ended up in the hands of Fortune 1000 corporations, publicly traded firms and even a number of large businesses overseas. This represents the seventh consecutive year that the Bush Administration has released small business contracting statistics that includes billions of dollars in contracts to some of the largest companies in the U.S. and Europe.
There have now been 15 federal investigations during the Bush Administration, that have all found large businesses as the actual recipients of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts. In Report 5-15, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the entire Federal Government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards." (http://www.sba.gov/ig/05-15.pdf)
On July 1, 2008, the Department of Interior (DOI) Office of Inspector General released a report, which stated that the DOI misstated the achievement of its small business goals by including Fortune 500 corporations. According to the report, DOI included dozens of corporate giants such as Dell, GTSI, Home Depot, John Deere, McGraw-Hill, Ricoh, Sherwin Williams, Starwood Hotels, Waste Management Incorporated, Weyerhaeuser, World Wide Technology, and Xerox in its small business contracting statistics. (http://www.doioig.gov/upload/2008-G-0024.pdf)
The American Small Business League (ASBL) intends to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the GSA for the specific names of all of the firms the GSA used to hit and exceed its congressionally mandated small business contracting goals. The ASBL intends to request the information as a means of proving that the Bush Administration once again has fabricated its small business contracting numbers for fiscal year 2007.
The ASBL projects that the Bush Administration diverts up to $100 billion a year in small business contracts to large corporations.
"The Bush Administration has lost all credibility with the public and the media, especially when it comes to small business contracting. There have been 15 federal investigations, which have all found that hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts intended for small businesses actually went to Fortune 500 corporations," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "The GSA's small business statistics are fabricated and have no validity. I would love to have someone from the press contact GSA's Acting Administrator Jim Williams and ask one question, 'are contracts to any Fortune 1000 corporations included in your small business contracting numbers, yes or no?' "
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Contact:
Christopher Gunn
Communications Director
American Small Business League
cgunn@asbl.com
(707) 789-9575
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