WASHINGTON, May 6, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Friday, May 8, SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet will join cabinet officials and senior executives from the Departments of Labor, Agriculture, Homeland Security, Treasury, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the General Services Administration and the U.S. Social Security Administration to announce the results of the 2014 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard at the White House.

 

The annual Scorecard is an assessment tool that measures how well federal agencies reach their small business and socio-economic prime contracting and subcontracting goals and reports agency-specific progress. The prime and subcontracting component goals include goals for small businesses, small businesses owned by women (WOSBs), small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs), service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs), and small businesses located in Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZones).

 

Every fiscal year, the SBA works with each agency to set their prime and subcontracting goals and their grades are based on the agreed upon goals. Each federal agency has a different small business prime contracting goal. SBA ensures that the sum total of all of the goals exceeds the 23 percent target established by law. Agency specific data from previous years can be found at: http://www.sba.gov/content/small-business-procurement-scorecards-0

 

WHO: SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet
Christopher Lu, Deputy Secretary, Department of Labor
Alfonso Lenhardt, Acting Administrator, U.S. Agency for
International Development
Adam Neufeld, Acting Deputy Administrator, General Services Administration

WHEN: Friday, May 8, 12:30-2 p.m.

HOW: Press must RSVP and provide their press credentials for the White House event to Tiffani.Clements@sba.gov by noon, May 7.

Contact:  Tiffani S. Clements (202) 401-0035
Miguel Ayala (202) 205-6420
Internet Address: http://www.sba.gov/news

 

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Maria Contreras-Sweet, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration recognized and awarded this year's National Small Business Week national award winners including the Small Business Person(s) of the Year at a ceremony and reception in Washington, D.C.

"It is my extreme pleasure to announce that Alan Doan and his sister Sarah Galbraith are this year's Small Business Person(s) of the Year. It was just seven short years ago that Alan and Sarah bought a quilting machine and a small building to house it. Their business, Missouri Star Quilt Company, now owns 15 buildings, encompassing 116,365 square feet. They are considered the largest employer in Caldwell County, with 148 employees," said Contreras-Sweet. 

 

"In 2013, the owners received an SBA 504 loan to construct a 45,000 square-foot facility to be used primarily for warehousing and shipping, as well as for customer service, sales and a photo/ catalog studio. This unique business is a combination of e-commerce and a bustling brick and mortar operation that has brought new life to Hamilton. Quilting tutorials posted on YouTube and hosted by Alan and Sarah's mother Jennie became a big hit. The company now ships hundreds of packages every single day to customers all over the globe. Due to their popularity on YouTube, the brick and mortar shop has become a quilting destination." Read Full Article.

PETALUMA, Calif., May 18, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The White House has still not announced a new date for a major event that was abruptly canceled on the last day of National Small Business Week.

 

The largest White House event in history to celebrate the announcement of the government's annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard was abruptly canceled just hours before it was planned to begin. The event was to be led by Small Business Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet and was to be attended by several members of the Presidents Cabinet and other senior Obama Administration officials. 

 

The original date for the event was Friday, May 8, but the White House suddenly announced the event had been canceled late Thursday afternoon. Washington Business Journal journalist Kent Hoover released an article on Friday titled, "It's time for the SBA to get real about small business contracting numbers." He reported the event was abruptly canceled approximately an hour after he contacted the SBA Press Office, headed by Terry Sutherland, and requested the names of the top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts. Hoover also notified the SBA "he planned to ask Contreras-Sweet about what the agency had done to ensure their small business contracting numbers were accurate."

 

The sudden cancellation of the event may have been to reduce media attention on the fact the majority of the top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts were actually Fortune 500 firms, their subsidiaries and other large businesses.

 

The decision to cancel the event may have also been based on the release of an embarrassing investigative report on Wednesday, by Pubic Citizen titled "Slighted" with the subtitle "Accounting Tricks Create False Impression That Small Businesses Are Getting Their Fair Share of Federal Procurement Money, and the Political Factors That Might Be at Play."

 

The report was prompted by research done by the American Small Business League (ASBL) that has found every year of the Obama Administration the vast majority of the top 100 recipients of federal small business contracts were actually corporate giants and large businesses. ASBL President Lloyd Chapman was interviewed for the report.

The House Small Business Committee has unanimously adopted an amendment requesting a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into fraud in federal small business contracting based on research done by Chapman's ASBL.

 

The first GAO investigation into small business contracting fraud in 2002 was also based on research by Lloyd Chapman. A February 2003 article in Washington Technology reported, "In December, the General Accounting Office began its own investigation based on information Chapman provided, said Dave Cooper, Director of GAO's Acquisition and Sourcing Management Office."

 

SBA Press Office Director Terry Sutherland has refused to speak with anyone from the press since the sudden cancellation of the White House Small Business Procurement Scorecard event, and no new date has yet to be announced.

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