Today, the Washington Post's, "Government Inc." blog by Robert O'Harrow Jr. stated:
"Like companies across the land, Blackwater sought to be designated as a small business to win contracts more easily from the State Department or other agencies. But is it also possible that government procurement officials wanted to apply the designation to Blackwater to make it easier to award the contracts?
Don't laugh. It happens all the time."
The re-emergence of this issue brings us back to a press release distributed by the American Small Business League (ASBL) on July 30th, which found that from 2004 to 2008 Blackwater received upwards of $1.07 billion in federal contracts coded as small business contracts. Additionally, the ASBL reported that if the SBA had made the determination that Blackwater's 1000 "independent contractors" were employees, the firm would have exceeded the small business size standard for its industry by 250employees. To read more please click here http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1113.
To read the entire Washington Post blog, please click here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com
Friday, August 8, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Huffington Post: Blackwater Gets a Billion in Small Business Contracts with Help from SBA Loophole
A new report from the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General found Blackwater Worldwide had received "at least 100 small business set-aside contracts, worth over $144 million, since 2000." Additionally, the report pointed to the SBA's highly controversial ruling regarding Blackwater's size as a major contributing factor to the inclusion of Blackwater in federal small business contracting statistics.
In November of 2006, the SBA ruled that Blackwater was a small business by considering a substantial number of the firm's employees to be independent contractors. According to the SBA Inspector General report, more than 1000 employees were considered independent contractors and were not counted towards the company's size determination by the SBA. As a result, Blackwater was able to avoid the 1,500-employee size threshold for their industry and qualify for federal small business contracts. The SBA's interpretation helped Blackwater circumvent normal federal small business size standards. Without the SBA's loophole specifically created for Blackwater, the company would exceed the small business size standard by more than 250 employees and would not be eligible for federal small business contracts.
Please click here to read more: www.huffingtonpost.com
In November of 2006, the SBA ruled that Blackwater was a small business by considering a substantial number of the firm's employees to be independent contractors. According to the SBA Inspector General report, more than 1000 employees were considered independent contractors and were not counted towards the company's size determination by the SBA. As a result, Blackwater was able to avoid the 1,500-employee size threshold for their industry and qualify for federal small business contracts. The SBA's interpretation helped Blackwater circumvent normal federal small business size standards. Without the SBA's loophole specifically created for Blackwater, the company would exceed the small business size standard by more than 250 employees and would not be eligible for federal small business contracts.
Please click here to read more: www.huffingtonpost.com
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Lloyd Chapman on the Huffington Post: SBA Goes After Its Harshest Critic
Petaluma, Calif. - The American Small Business League (ASBL) has uncovered an extensive campaign by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to impugn the organization's credibility and defame its President, Lloyd Chapman.
A number of journalists have informed the ASBL that after quoting Chapman in stories on the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms, they received aggressive phone calls and e-mails from the Director of the SBA's Press Office, Mike Stamler attempting to discredit Chapman and the ASBL.
In one case, after quoting Chapman in a story, the Long Island Business Journal (LIBJ) received a series of aggressive correspondence from Stamler, which was so profane in nature that editors of the paper responded by publishing a blog entitled, "Expletives the SBA's Forte." (http://libizblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/expletives-the-sbas-forte/)
The ASBL has responded to the SBA's actions by using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request all e-mail correspondence to and from Mike Stamler during the years 2006 and 2007.
Although the SBA has refused to release all of Stamler's correspondence, the SBA has released some correspondence, which clearly demonstrates a pattern of libelous communication between Stamler and journalists regarding Chapman. The emails went as far as to attack the credibility of the ASBL's contracting data, which actually was data the SBA was forced to release to ASBL after losing four FOIA lawsuits to them.
Click here to read more: www.huffingtonpost.com
A number of journalists have informed the ASBL that after quoting Chapman in stories on the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms, they received aggressive phone calls and e-mails from the Director of the SBA's Press Office, Mike Stamler attempting to discredit Chapman and the ASBL.
In one case, after quoting Chapman in a story, the Long Island Business Journal (LIBJ) received a series of aggressive correspondence from Stamler, which was so profane in nature that editors of the paper responded by publishing a blog entitled, "Expletives the SBA's Forte." (http://libizblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/expletives-the-sbas-forte/)
The ASBL has responded to the SBA's actions by using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request all e-mail correspondence to and from Mike Stamler during the years 2006 and 2007.
Although the SBA has refused to release all of Stamler's correspondence, the SBA has released some correspondence, which clearly demonstrates a pattern of libelous communication between Stamler and journalists regarding Chapman. The emails went as far as to attack the credibility of the ASBL's contracting data, which actually was data the SBA was forced to release to ASBL after losing four FOIA lawsuits to them.
Click here to read more: www.huffingtonpost.com
Monday, July 28, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
POGO: Small Business Contractors Get a 'John Deere' Letter
This week, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) blogged about the recent Department of Interior (DOI) Office of Inspector General investigation into the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations. In the Blog, POGO staffer Neil Gordon stated,
"Last month, we blogged about the American Small Business League's (ASBL) claim that the Bush administration, through the Small Business Administration (SBA), has lied to Congress and the public about the extent to which federal small business contracts end up going to some of the world's largest companies. With the release of this DOI-IG report, the ASBL reiterates that claim. According to the ASBL, the SBA is misleading the public in press statements that characterize the $5.7 million cited in the report as the total amount of small business contracts that went to large companies, neglecting to point out that the figure comes from a survey of just a tiny fraction of all small business contracts awarded by the DOI.
The report reviewed just 0.3% of the $4 billion DOI bureaus awarded to small business entities during fiscal years 2006-2007. The ASBL, however, decided to investigate further. It conducted a review of the DOI's top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts for 2006 and 2007. Between the two top 100 lists, the ASBL found more than $430 million in federal small business contracts had been awarded to 31 large corporations, most of which are Fortune 500 companies. Based on the DOI-IG report's methodology, the ASBL estimates the total amount of small business contracts awarded to large corporations by the DOI could exceed $1.7 billion for 2006 and 2007.
Some may scoff at the ASBL's findings and somewhat heated rhetoric. However, a glance at Appendix 3 in the DOI-IG report, which lists numerous other recent government reports that highlight serious problems in the small business contracting program, indicates the ASBL is probably on the right track."
To read the full post, please click on the following link:
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2008/07/small-business.html
The first congressional hearing on the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations was held in May of 2003. Since then, there have been more than a dozen federal investigations that have found Fortune 500 corporations as the actual recipients of federal small business contracts.
This latest DOI report is further proof that the federal government is counting small business contract awards to large businesses towards its small business procurement goals. Clearly, there are major problems in federal small business contracting programs and it is time to address these problems. Click here to learn more about what you can do to stop this problem: http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=645
"Last month, we blogged about the American Small Business League's (ASBL) claim that the Bush administration, through the Small Business Administration (SBA), has lied to Congress and the public about the extent to which federal small business contracts end up going to some of the world's largest companies. With the release of this DOI-IG report, the ASBL reiterates that claim. According to the ASBL, the SBA is misleading the public in press statements that characterize the $5.7 million cited in the report as the total amount of small business contracts that went to large companies, neglecting to point out that the figure comes from a survey of just a tiny fraction of all small business contracts awarded by the DOI.
The report reviewed just 0.3% of the $4 billion DOI bureaus awarded to small business entities during fiscal years 2006-2007. The ASBL, however, decided to investigate further. It conducted a review of the DOI's top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts for 2006 and 2007. Between the two top 100 lists, the ASBL found more than $430 million in federal small business contracts had been awarded to 31 large corporations, most of which are Fortune 500 companies. Based on the DOI-IG report's methodology, the ASBL estimates the total amount of small business contracts awarded to large corporations by the DOI could exceed $1.7 billion for 2006 and 2007.
Some may scoff at the ASBL's findings and somewhat heated rhetoric. However, a glance at Appendix 3 in the DOI-IG report, which lists numerous other recent government reports that highlight serious problems in the small business contracting program, indicates the ASBL is probably on the right track."
To read the full post, please click on the following link:
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2008/07/small-business.html
The first congressional hearing on the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations was held in May of 2003. Since then, there have been more than a dozen federal investigations that have found Fortune 500 corporations as the actual recipients of federal small business contracts.
This latest DOI report is further proof that the federal government is counting small business contract awards to large businesses towards its small business procurement goals. Clearly, there are major problems in federal small business contracting programs and it is time to address these problems. Click here to learn more about what you can do to stop this problem: http://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=645
Thursday, July 17, 2008
For Fed Work, Big Biz Trumps Small Firms
This is a great story, which ran across Associated Press media outlets today regarding the unequal distribution of small business contracts in the Washington D.C Area and the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Government Small Business Contracts Went to Fortune 500 Companies, According to Latest Federal Investigation
Today, the American Small Business League (ASBL) released the following press release:
Petaluma, Calif. – On July 1st, 2008, the Department of Interior (DOI) became the latest federal agency to issue a report that found Fortune 500 firms were the actual recipients of federal small business contracts. The report (http://www.doioig.gov/upload/2008-G-0024.pdf) also found contracts to Fortune 500 firms were used to falsify the DOI's compliance with its small business contracting goal and significantly misrepresent the Bush Administration's compliance with the Congressionally mandated 23 percent small business contracting goal.
The report stated that despite regulations and policies put in place to ensure data integrity, contracting officers intentionally reported contracts to some of the nation's largest corporations as small business contracts. The DOI Inspector General found contracting officers knowingly entered GSA contract information into the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG) improperly, which allowed them to code a contract to an obvious large firm as a small business set-aside contract. The report noted that DOI contracting officers had recently received training on the proper entry of GSA acquisitions into FPDS-NG.
During 2006 and 2007, DOI reported millions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500 corporations such as Dell, GTSI, Home Depot, John Deere, McGraw-Hill, Ricoh, Sherwin Williams, Starwood Hotels, Waste Management Incorporated, Weyerhaeuser, World Wide Technology and Xerox Corporation as small business contracts.
The DOI Office of Inspector General's report is the latest investigation to contradict two Small Business Administration (SBA) press releases, which claimed that it was a "myth" that large businesses received federal small business contracts.
The General Accounting Office (GAO) first uncovered the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 corporations in 2002. Since then, there have been approximately a dozen federal investigations that have all found Fortune 500 firms and other large corporations were the actual recipients of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts every year. Despite the series of federal investigations and over 400 stories in the press since 2002, no legislation has been passed to address the problem.
As opposed to adopting policies to stop the flow of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms, former SBA Administer Steven Preston adopted a SBA policy in June of 2007 that will allow Fortune 500 firms to continue to receive federal small business contracts until the year 2012. Preston also removed all information from the government's Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database that could be used to determine if a firm was small or large. Additionally, Preston refused to release the specific names of all firms that received government small business contracts.
Click here to read more: www.asbl.com
Petaluma, Calif. – On July 1st, 2008, the Department of Interior (DOI) became the latest federal agency to issue a report that found Fortune 500 firms were the actual recipients of federal small business contracts. The report (http://www.doioig.gov/upload/2008-G-0024.pdf) also found contracts to Fortune 500 firms were used to falsify the DOI's compliance with its small business contracting goal and significantly misrepresent the Bush Administration's compliance with the Congressionally mandated 23 percent small business contracting goal.
The report stated that despite regulations and policies put in place to ensure data integrity, contracting officers intentionally reported contracts to some of the nation's largest corporations as small business contracts. The DOI Inspector General found contracting officers knowingly entered GSA contract information into the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG) improperly, which allowed them to code a contract to an obvious large firm as a small business set-aside contract. The report noted that DOI contracting officers had recently received training on the proper entry of GSA acquisitions into FPDS-NG.
During 2006 and 2007, DOI reported millions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500 corporations such as Dell, GTSI, Home Depot, John Deere, McGraw-Hill, Ricoh, Sherwin Williams, Starwood Hotels, Waste Management Incorporated, Weyerhaeuser, World Wide Technology and Xerox Corporation as small business contracts.
The DOI Office of Inspector General's report is the latest investigation to contradict two Small Business Administration (SBA) press releases, which claimed that it was a "myth" that large businesses received federal small business contracts.
The General Accounting Office (GAO) first uncovered the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 corporations in 2002. Since then, there have been approximately a dozen federal investigations that have all found Fortune 500 firms and other large corporations were the actual recipients of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts every year. Despite the series of federal investigations and over 400 stories in the press since 2002, no legislation has been passed to address the problem.
As opposed to adopting policies to stop the flow of federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms, former SBA Administer Steven Preston adopted a SBA policy in June of 2007 that will allow Fortune 500 firms to continue to receive federal small business contracts until the year 2012. Preston also removed all information from the government's Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database that could be used to determine if a firm was small or large. Additionally, Preston refused to release the specific names of all firms that received government small business contracts.
Click here to read more: www.asbl.com
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