SBA claims questioned, but not answered

WASHINGTON, June 22 (UPI) -- The American Small Business League blasted the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration for allegedly covering up secret support for big business.

"SBA Administrator Hector Barreto announced today that $79.6 billion in federal prime contracts was awarded to small businesses in fiscal year 2005," Lloyd Chapman, head of the ASBL, said Thursday.

"Although he claimed 'another record year for small business,' what Barreto failed to mention is that the government has included billions of dollars in awards to some of the nation's largest corporations in these small business numbers."

Specifically, the SBA has helped Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, L-3 Communications, General Dynamics and Titan, the ASBL said. In addition, the SBA is giving large foreign corporations "small business" contracts, a spokeswoman said.

As part of its effort to learn how the SBA arrived at its nearly $80 billion figure, the ASBL is suing NASA, the U.S. space agency, to obtain specific small business data on contracts.