Agencies Counted Big Firms As Small (SBA gave small business money to massive companies)

[tpsbmam]

Source: WaPo

U.S. government agencies made at least $5 billion in mistakes in their recent reports of contracts awarded to small businesses, with many claiming credit for awards to companies that long ago outgrew the designation or never qualified in the first place, a Washington Post analysis shows.

The Post examined a sampling of the $89 billion in contracts the agencies classified as small-business awards, which help them satisfy a congressional mandate to award nearly a fourth of all government work to small firms.

In the data The Post analyzed, federal agencies counted Lockheed Martin and its subsidiaries as "small" on 207 contracts worth $143 million. Dell Computer, a Fortune 500 company, was listed as a small business on $89 million in contracts.

The Navy claimed that $60 million in work it gave to Digital System Resources, a division of General Dynamics, went to a small firm -- a year after agencies were warned that DSR did not qualify. The Defense Department, which for a century has used Electric Boat to build submarines, labeled the firm as a small business for $1 million in supplies and services. The Department of Veterans Affairs said a computer glitch caused it to claim a $29 million payment to defense security giant CACI as a small-business award.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/21/AR2008102102989_pf.html

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Yep, um hmm, this was all a SNAFU. Right.

[northofdenali]

1. To get farther into anacronisms.........

the SBA is FUBAR and has been since Ronnie Ray Gun.

[Indenturedebtor]

2. I wonder where the people who made these "mistakes" are working now? n/t

[global1]

3. The Repugs And Bush Did More To Hurt Small Businesses Than Anyone.....

that's why it's so disingenuous of McCain to say he's for the small businessperson.

[snot]

4. k& 5th-r'd