SmallBusinessNewz

Small business contracts to big firms in question

Avowed Small Business Administration critic Lloyd Chapman at the American Small Business League touted a decision that he thinks will prove a pattern of doling out federal small business contracts to Fortune 1000 firms.

Ahead of a lawsuit Chapman planned to file against SBA, the Agency agreed to release two years of correspondence from its press office director, Mike Stamler, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Chapman and his ASBL believe they will find evidence that the SBA aggressively misled Congress about the awarding of small business contracts worth billions to big companies.

Chapman claims the SBA has shrugged off reports about awards going to the likes of Rolls Royce, Wal-Mart, and Raytheon as "data entry errors."

"Mike Stamler's office has made blatantly false and misleading statements to the media for years on this issue and tried to pressure journalists to drop the story," Chapman said in a statement.

A statement from SBA in May 2007 seems to indicate money reached large businesses, and counted as part of the percentage of small business contracts the government is supposed to award each year.

Chapman called the contents of that statement "absurd" and accused Stamler's office of making "blatantly false and misleading statements to the media for years on this issue and tried to pressure journalists to drop the story."