Small Firms Miss Out on Contracts: GAO

The government is shortchanging small firms, which are supposed to get nearly a quarter of federal contracts, by giving millions of dollars of business to once-small firms that are now large, congressional investigators report.

In testimony to be delivered today to the House Small Business Committee, the General Accounting Office says it studied five large companies that received $1.1 billion in contracts in fiscal 2001 and found that $460 million of the total was reported as awarded to small business.

The GAO blames outdated federal data. The Small Business Administration has proposed requiring small businesses to certify their status annually.

The government has a goal of giving 23% of federal contracting dollars to small businesses.

From Associated Press