SBA Facing National Campaign To Secure GAO And FBI Investigations, According To The American Small Business League

PETALUMA, Calif., Sept. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Small Business League (ASBL) has launched a national campaign to prompt Congress to request an investigation of the Small Business Administration (SBA) by both the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the FBI.

The Small Business Act mandates that a minimum of 23% of the total value of all federal contracts be awarded to small businesses. By law 5% of all federal contracts should go to woman-owned small businesses, 5% to small disadvantaged owned businesses, 3% to service disabled veteran-owned small businesses and 3% to HUBZone businesses. The SBA is responsible for overseeing all federal small business contracting programs.

The ASBL believes the information uncovered in a series of previous federal investigations clearly indicated that officials at the SBA helped to coordinate the diversion of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and thousands of large businesses. Based on information the ASBL has obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, they believe senior SBA officials have systematically falsified government reports on the actual percentage of federal contracts awarded to small businesses in every federal program to assist small businesses. 

Every year since 2005, the SBA Office of Inspector General has reported the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as the number one challenge at the SBA and yet SBA officials have refused to adopt any policies to halt the fraud and abuse.

The Government Accountability Office investigated the SBA and essentially accused the SBA of encouraging fraud in the federal program to direct 3% of federal contracts to disabled veteran-owned small businesses. In GAO Report 10-108 the GAO stated, "By failing to hold firms accountable, SBA and contracting agencies have sent a message to the contracting community that there is no punishment or consequences for committing fraud or abusing the intent of the SDVOSB program."

The ASBL believes senior SBA officials have intentionally and illegally defrauded small business out of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal contracts by using fabricated terms such as "small business eligible dollars" to inflate the true volume of federal contracts awarded to all categories of small businesses and intentionally falsify the government's compliance with federal law mandating small business contracting goals.

The Washington Post, The Hill, Government Executive, NBC, CNN, ABC, Fox News, MSNBC, RTTV and CNBC have all reported on the abuses at the SBA.

The ASBL has mobilized a national campaign to encourage Chambers of Commerce and every organization that supports small businesses, minority-owned, woman-owned and service disabled veteran-owned small businesses to pressure Congress into ordering the SBA investigations.

The ASBL has launched an investigation of the SBA using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). To date the SBA has refused to fully comply with any of their FOIA requests.

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SOURCE American Small Business League

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