Washington Journalists Force Cancellation of White House Small Business Event

PETALUMA, Calif., May 13, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A major White House event to announce the Obama Administration's most recent Small Business Procurement Scorecard was abruptly cancelled on Friday after Public Citizen released an embarrassing investigative report that found the administration's small business data had actually been falsified and significantly inflated.

SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet was scheduled to lead the event along with several members of President Obama's cabinet and other senior executives.

Public Citizen's investigative report was titled "Sleighted" with a subtitle, "Accounting Tricks Create False Impression That Small Businesses Are Getting Their Fair Share of Federal Procurement Money, and the Political Factors That Might Be at Play."

The report was based on research by the American Small Business League (ASBL) and interviews with President and founder Lloyd Chapman. Chapman has been sounding the alarm on rampant fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs since 2002. Chapman's ASBL has been the only national small business organization to expose the rampant fraud with a barrage of press releases, blogs, TV and radio appearances and recently short documentaries.

An article published by Washington Business Journal correspondent, Kent Hoover, titled, "It's Time for SBA to get real about small business contracting numbers," appears to have also played a role in the administration's decision to suddenly cancel the event. Hoover contacted the SBA Press Office on Thursday and asked for a list of the top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts.

Hoover also let the Press Office know he would be asking Administrator Contreras- Sweet why the SBA continued to include Fortune 500 firms in their small business contracting data. SBA Press Office Director Terry Sutherland has gone underground since the controversy broke. The ASBL has accused retired Naval Commander Sutherland of using his position as SBA Press Office Director to help obscure blatant fraud that has been uncovered in Pentagon small business contracting programs.

The ASBL released press releases and videos on May 7 and May 8 predicting the Obama Administration's small business numbers would be fabricated and inflated with billions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500 firms. Two more press releases were released on May 11 and May 12 confirming just that.

GovExec journalist Charley Clark released his story on the SBA's misapplication of the law that permits large companies to win small business awards titled, "Advocacy Group Accuses SBA of Misapplying Law on Small Business Set-Asides."

AllGov journalist, Steven Straehley released his article on the humiliating SBA fiasco titled, "Small Business Administration Uses Variety of Accounting Tricks to Give Contracts to Big Businesses."

"Its nice to finally have some help in exposing the rampant fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs, since I first uncovered it in 2002. I guess this means I have graduated from a conspiracy nut to a credible whistleblower. I guess I need to prepare myself for the inevitable government anti-whistleblower campaign," stated Chapman.   

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SOURCE American Small Business League