Public indignation, Congressional ire and Women Business Groups anger are the terms, which have been used to describe the bureaucrats handling of a Congressional directive involving 'women set-asides.'

The actual handling of the case has taken more than seven years to reach this point and the outcome provides a clear indication as to why bureaucrats would be much better off by allowing the involvement of entrepreneurs - in the fashion proposed by the Fairness in Procurement Alliance (FPA) 'umbrella initiative.'

The innovative approach used will help the Federal government effectively and timely meet the Congressional mandate involving all 'procurement set-asides.'

The FPA 'umbrella initiative' would create a 'Small Business Set-Aside Center' to allow entrepreneurs to work side-by-side with bureaucrats - with oversight and transparency - in the handling of programs that affect their livelihood.

The time-frame and methods bureaucrats appear to have chosen to deal with the 'women-set aside directive' next to the delay they allowed (over 10 years) before addressing the legality of the 'FAR exemptions' - which diverted $640 Billion in government contracts, during that time, away from small businesses - are indications that a more efficient and innovative system is in high demand.

When it comes to business issues, bureaucrats' are not as well suited as entrepreneurs to handle solutions that affect the livelihood of a business. There is no urgency; no profit-motive; tons of red tape and a lot of political pressure.

Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, would have a) addressed the issue; b) come up with options; c) tested them; d) secured the go ahead; e) implemented a solution; and e) have it working well within a year or two.

FPA intends to formally unveil its 'umbrella initiative' soon after the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) eliminates -as it is expected - the influence of the FAR Exemptions on the Federal procurement community. Stay tuned for the fireworks!

Raul Espinosa
Founder and Spokesperson
Fairness in Procurement Alliance (FPA)

What a Wish-washy wimpy WAPO article this is!

Fairness in government contracting is out and set-asides are only for the Administration's crony pals under the Bush Administration.

A Press Release written by Lloyd Chapman at the "American Small Business League" makes it pretty damned clear what has been going on at the SBA during the Bush-Cheney Administration's two terms.

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"Embattled SBA Administrator Leaves Agency in Shambles, Says American Small Business League"
Wednesday May 24, 8:20 am ET

PETALUMA, Calif., May 24 /PRNewswire/ --

The five-year reign of outgoing SBA Administrator Hector Barreto has left the agency a gutted shell of what it was when he took office in 2001. The SBA's dismal performance under Barreto's leadership has been chronicled in ten Federal investigations and two private studies that uncovered fraud, abuse, and lack of proper oversight in virtually every major SBA program.

And, as Barreto allowed the SBA's operating budget and staff to be cut every year, a government-wide survey showed that the morale of SBA employees plummeted to the lowest level of any Federal agency.

Barreto has drawn the ire of both houses of Congress and from Republicans and Democrats alike. The small business committees in both the House and Senate have grown accustomed to the false and misleading information he delivers on SBA performance. New York Representative Nydia Velasquez was so angered by Barreto's attempts to mislead Congress that she publicly accused him of "being dishonest" in a Congressional hearing last year.

A 2003 Government Accountability Office investigation found that Mr. Barreto had allowed Federal small business statistics to be inflated by reporting billions of dollars in contracts to large companies as small business awards. After a subsequent Congressional hearing on the matter, the SBA was forced to remove the names of 600 large businesses from its PRO-NET database, which at that time was the main source for government procurement officers to find small business contractors.

A 2004 report commissioned by the SBA Office of Advocacy found Barreto had permitted awards to firms such as Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman to be reported as small business contracts. The same report found "vendor deception" - another word for fraud - was one reason for the illegal contracting activity. To date, Barreto has refused to take any action to address the abuses.

In 2005, the SBA's own Office of Inspector General issued four reports that documented continuing cases of fraud and abuse. Report 5-15 stated that, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards." Still, Barreto refused to take any action to address the problems.

Report 5-14 found that during Barreto's tenure, the SBA had falsified their own small business contracting statistics by reporting millions in awards to large businesses as small business contracts. In one instance, the SBA reported a large contract to Fuhrman NV - a Dutch firm with 18,000 employees worldwide - as a small business award.

Report 5-16 found Barreto had allowed large businesses to receive millions in Federal small business contracts through "false certifications."

Report 5-20 found that under Barreto's guidance, the SBA had failed to properly monitor major federal "bundled" contracts to allow small companies a more equitable opportunity to compete for government business.

In a failed attempt to protect the SBA's dubious small business contracting statistics, Barreto directed SBA attorneys to fight Freedom of Information Act (FOLIA) requests that could prove the SBA had intentionally manipulated the numbers. The SBA lost two FOLIA cases to the American Small Business League and; in both instances, they were forced to release information that proved the agency had extensive knowledge of fraud and abuse in the system.

Barreto's refusal to implement the women's procurement program that Congress enacted in 2000 has cost women entrepreneurs well over $33 billion in lost contracting opportunities. Frustrated with his lack of action, the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce successfully sued the SBA in order to compel Mr. Barreto to take action.

A September 12, 2005 story by the Associated Press reported that the 9/11 disaster-recovery loan program had been completely mishandled and that less than 11% of the loans approved had actually gone to firms in New York.

In 2006, the SBA Office of Inspector General issued report 6-15 that revealed the SBA has mismanaged the 8(a) contracting program to the point where it is rife with fraud and abuse. The Government Accountability Office released an additional report on abuse by Alaska Native Corporations in the 8(a) program that the SBA allowed through a significant lack of oversight.

Budget cuts and staff layoffs during Barreto's term resulted in a dramatic loss of knowledgeable and experienced staff. After the Gulf hurricanes last year, the SBA was forced to take on thousands of temporary workers to compensate for the severe lack of experienced employees.

Furthermore, the Gulf loan program has been so poorly handled that thousands of small business owners have been forced into bankruptcy because they have been unable to get timely financial help. While Barreto has frequently touted record numbers of loans approved for hurricane victims, the reality is that only a small percentage of the loans have actually been dispersed. The New Orleans Times-Picayune cited a recent study by a post- Katrina advocacy group that found only about 21% of small businesses had received any assistance.

A recent article in Inc. magazine labeled Barreto "the disappointment" in the Bush Administration. SBA insiders have acknowledged that he was forced to resign after the White House determined Barreto's handling of the SBA was a public relations nightmare and an embarrassment to President Bush. Barreto's removal as head of a Federal agency to run a small and obscure Hispanic lobbying group marks a dismal end to his troubled political career.

The incoming:

On Mr. Preston, from Fortune Small Business...

A Big-Biz Face for the SBA?
By Elizabeth Wright

WHEN PRESIDENT BUSH announced his April nomination of Steven Preston to replace Hector Barreto at the Small Business Administration, the response could have been summed up in one word: Who? Preston--who left his post as executive vice president at ServiceMaster, a $3.2-billion-a-year Chicago landscape and home-maintenance company (servicemaster.com), to pursue the nomination--has spent his career working for large companies. He is a virtual unknown in Washington, with seemingly little clout. Ken Hooten, managing partner of Concentric Equity Partners, a Chicago investment fund on whose advisory board Preston serves, says he never knew that Preston wanted to run the SBA. "I don't think he has political aspirations," says Hooten. "He just wants to make a difference."

A Sunday-school-teaching father of five, Preston, 45, likely came to Bush's attention through Claire Buchan, a former ServiceMaster vice president of communications who has served as deputy assistant to President Bush. (ServiceMaster's first corporate objective--"To honor God in all that we do"--probably did not hurt Preston's chances.) Preston is a small-government, laissez-faire conservative whose ideologies were shaped by the education he received at the University of Chicago in the mid-1980s, says Dan Kenary, a former classmate from that school's MBA program. Kenary adds that Preston nonetheless supports the SBA's loan programs, seeing them as a "pretty efficient way to create jobs." But not everyone is convinced; Lloyd Chapman, president of the American Small Business League (asbl.com), says that during Preston's tenure, ServiceMaster lobbied Congress to limit the amount of federal small-business contracts, and refers to the company as "anti-small business." (Preston declined an interview, pending the confirmation process.)

Preston's supporters shrug off his lack of small-business experience, pointing to his years at ServiceMaster--where he approved loans to franchisees--and at investment banks and funds.

Karen Kerrigan, head of the conservative Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (sbsc.org), says that while she supports Preston, she worries whether he will be "in tune" with entrepreneurs' needs: "Not all small business are turnkey franchises."
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Read more dirt at the non-partisan American Small Business League's Press Room: http://www.asbl.com/5_1.html
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I am waiting for the Congressional Hearings for what exactly has been going on!

[12/05/07]

"SBA Announcing a hearing to hold the administration accountable for promises to implement programs to help small businesses and women entrepreneurs succeed."

[http://sbc.senate.gov/correspondence.cfm]

This is the kind of thing that will probably show that Bush was the worst president this country has had in modern history. The SBA has been gutted, so has the FEMA organization, as has the VA, the Social Security Admin, and in fact every major Federal Organization in our country. I have seen it time after time and in the state organizations as well, because they do not have the Federal Funds to keep all the personnel they need to run their organizations as they should. The Gutting of the SBA is just a tip of the iceberg. I'm afraid it will take many hard years before our country is back to normal again.