Bush Administration Ignores Investigations and Claims Billions In Contracting Abuses are a "Myth"

Petaluma, Calif. - On June 12th, the Small Business Administration (SBA) issued the latest release in a series of press releases entitled "Myth vs. Fact". The latest "Myth vs. Fact" press release is in response to a New York Times article on a multitude of significant problems at the SBA that continue even after the departure of Administrator Steven Preston. In the release, Bush officials at the SBA once again claimed, "Large corporations are not receiving contracts meant for small businesses."

Despite a growing mountain of evidence, the Bush Administration is still refusing to admit they diverted billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to a long list of corporate giants. A series of federal investigations beginning in 2002 all found the Bush Administration awarded billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to firms such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Halliburton, L-3 Communications, Battelle, Titan Industries and British Aerospace and Engineering (BAE).

In 2003, the General Accounting Office (GAO) completed the first investigation into the diversion of government small business contracts to large businesses and found that the Bush Administration awarded federal small business contracts to thousands of large businesses.

Since 2003, over 400 stories have run in newspapers, magazines and on-line regarding the diversion of federal small business contacts to Fortune 1000 firms. ABC, CBS and CNN have all run investigative stories on the issue.

Bush officials have persistently ignored the overwhelming preponderance of evidence and even claim it is a "myth" that large businesses are receiving federal small business contracts. The SBA first claimed it was a "myth" that large businesses were receiving government small business contracts in a "Myth vs. Fact" press release on March 11, 2007. The American Small Business League issued a press release refuting each of the SBA's statements.

Even federal offices headed by Bush appointees acknowledged that Fortune 1000 firms and other large businesses have been the actual recipients of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts.

In 2004, the SBA Office of Advocacy, headed by Bush appointee Thomas Sullivan, released an investigation on a sampling of government contracts that discovered firms such as Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Booze Allen Hamilton and the Carlyle Group received billions of dollars in contracts the Bush Administration reported as going to small businesses.

In statements to the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship in July of 2006, Bush appointee Eric Thorson, the SBA's own Inspector General, acknowledged large firms were being allowed to receive and perform government small business contracts. His recommendations to stop the flow of federal small business contracts to large firms were subsequently ignored by SBA Administrator Steven Preston.

The most damaging evidence against the SBA's latest "Myth vs. Fact" press release comes from the SBA's own Office of Inspector General.

In Report 5-15, the SBA 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."

Report 5-14, found the SBA itself inflated their small business contracting data by reporting millions of dollars in awards to large business as small business awards. In one example the SBA reported contracts to the Dutch giant Buhrmann NV as small business awards. Buhrmann is headquartered in Amsterdam and has thousands of employees in over 25 countries worldwide.

In June, the ASBL won its fourth federal lawsuit against the SBA under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The SBA was forced to release over 10,000 pages of documents on the actual recipients of federal small business contracts for fiscal years 2005 and 2006. The data proved conclusively that the Bush Administration had in fact awarded billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 1000 firms and hundreds of other large businesses. Third party analysis of the data found hundreds of individual Fortune 1000 firms had received as much as $900 million annually in federal small business contracts. The data is available on the ASBL website.

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Comments

[Sundialsvc4]

The illegal diversion of billions of dollars in government funds is ... a Felony.

If we can send a CEO to prison for 20 years for the malfeasance of his or her corporation, then we can do the very same thing with the CEO of the United States Government.

If, on the other hand, that CEO is so confident that "everyone around here is corrupt" ... that is to say, if he acts like a "Capa de Capa" and baldly acts like one ... then it is the 300+ million of us "We the Peoples" who are the Plaintiffs here.

If this Republic has not the power to enforce its own laws (and in particular its so-called "Supreme Law of the Land") against itself ... then the United States of America has already fallen. It just hasn't hit the ground quite yet, but when it does, it will splatter.

It's just that simple: "Governments are instituted among men." Governments, being composed of men, can be corrupted, and when that happens, "the people perish."

You can't escape History. Either you read it and study it and absorb its lessons, or you repeat them and eventually you Perish.

[beingrepubwontmakeurich]

Seriously. Is there anything sinister left that this administration HASN'T done to the working class in this country? As a small business owner being slammed hard enough by this economy, and $900/mo to have health insurance that we probably won't be able to keep for much longer, this is just adding insult to injury. I don't really know how much more I can take.

[WIpatriot]

Trust me, they will help you to find out...seri­ously.

[americaforme]

Thirty years ago when these Big Business genius's started merging, structuraly destroying, the guts of our economy, systematicaly, globaly setting the stage for one world gov.. We were sleep walking, not paying attention in the eightys...­Fiftys children (I accept my self absorbed responsibilitys), could'nt smell the coffee. Anti Trust was not just words to us. We loved our gov. this average person, thought life was a spirit quest...Le­t the elected officals take care of gov. Real Estate went bannas, copper mines outsoursed, steel, Unions did shady deals with pension funds. Big Business, grabbed the golden ring, and ran to the most corrupt place of all, the Banking system...I didn't wake up until Arianna's book (Pigs at the Trough) now I havent had a peacefull night, for fear for America.

[WorkingClass]

Welcome aboard. You will find there are many who have awakened and are not sleeping well.

[SeriousBlack]

Heavy sigh.

Just story # 632 of corruption and malfeasance in the dumbya administration.

[WIpatriot]

...and...A­ND... # 632 that they get away with with zero pressure from Congress.

[themodernleader]

White collar crme criminals, after successfully breaking the law repeatedly, see themselves as invisible, therefore impervious to prosecution and punishment. With the malefeasance of oversight by the Congress, most probably, nobody in the Bush Administration will be brought to justice; the rule of law is being replace with the rule of thieves.

[WIpatriot]

They know it and they know they can get away with it.

Oversight by Congress? Where?

[Chris Gunn - Huffpost Blogger]

On Friday, June 20th, Kiplinger published an interesting story on the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations. The first paragraph of the article states, " Half the federal contracts designated for small businesses in 2005 and 2006, about $100 billion a year, went to big firms, including multinational corporations. That's according to documents the Small Business Administration (SBA) handed over to the American Small Business League (ASBL) under court order this month." Even more http://www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/forecast/archive/small_business_setaside_program_080620.htmlram_080620.html)

[hopeless277]

With the kind of corporate sponsored media we have now, all they have to do is say it to make it true.

[oregonrain]

http://www.americanturkishcouncil.org/ In case you dont know what the ATC is .

[oregonrain]

If I'm not mistaken , most of the company names mentioned in this article , all belong to the American Turkish Council . Very interesting.