The American Small Business League recently put out a press release with an update on the Obama’s administration’s statistics on the volume of federal contracts. I think it’s important that we as small business owners hold the adminstration accountable to the Presidents remarks to end the diversion of federal contracts. Here is an excerpt of the press release.
Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found that legitimate small businesses have lost billions of dollars in federal small business contracts, which have been diverted to many of the largest firms around the world.
During his campaign President Obama promised to halt the rampant abuses and released the statement, “It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants.” (http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)
On August 21, 2009, the Obama Administration released the latest statistics on the volume of federal contracts awarded to small businesses. The fact that the Obama Administration’s small business data is littered with the names of thousands of corporate giants from around the world is an obvious indication that President Obama has gone back on his campaign promise.
The Obama Administration is claiming that the government awarded $93.3 billion in contracts to small businesses or 21.5 percent during fiscal year (FY) 2008.
According to information from the Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation (FPDS-NG), of the ten largest recipients of federal small business contracts, 85.4 percent of total contract dollars went to large businesses. Eight of the top ten recipients were large businesses.
The top recipient of federal small business contracts was Textron with $775 million. Textron is a Fortune 500 firm with 43,000 employees and over $14 billion in annual revenue.
What are your comments on what’s taking place with this administration handling of federal contracts?
