New investigations by the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General [5]have found SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet's announcement that small businesses received 23.39% of all federal contracts was greatly exaggerated. As WaPo reports [6], Federal agencies overstated their success last year in contracting with small businesses that face socio-economic disadvantages finding $400 million worth of contracts that agencies gave to ineligible firms but still counted toward their targets. Rather stunningly, the report found of the top 100 recipients of the highest dollar amount of federal small business contracts, over 75% were actually current large businesses. Trust...
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As The Washington Post reports, [6]
Federal agencies overstated their success last year in contracting with small businesses that face socio-economic disadvantages, according to a watchdog report released Wednesday. [5]
The Small Business Administration’s inspector general’s office said it identified $400 million worth of contracts that agencies gave to ineligible firms but still counted toward their targets.
The findings are significant because 2013 was the first year that the Obama administration claimed to have met the federal government’s small-business contracting goals. The flawed numbers led to inaccurate reports to Congress and the American people, according to the report.
The most recent data from the Federal Procurement Data System indicates of the top 100 recipients of the highest dollar amount of federal small business contracts, over 75% were actually current large businesses.
...
The first SBA Inspector General investigation that uncovered fraud in federal small business contracting was released in 1995. In 2003 an investigation by the Government Accountability Office found over 5,000 large businesses were receiving federal small business contracts.
The American Small Business League (ASBL) has launched a national campaign to secure a Government Accountability Office (GAO) and FBI investigation to uncover the specific individuals that were responsible for the two decades of fraud that have been uncovered at the SBA.
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So much for caring about the middle-class and small business... but we assume this won't be mentioned on the mainstream media platforms that need access to The White House.
