PETALUMA, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 10, 2014) - According to the American Small Business League, under the Freedom of Information Act, The American Small Business League (ASBL) has requested the most recent data submitted to the Pentagon by British Aerospace and Engineering (BAE).
The ASBL is specifically requesting the most recent information BAE submitted to the Pentagon as a participant in the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program. The ASBL believes the data may indicate the Pentagon has falsified compliance with federal law establishing small business contracting goals.
The Pentagon adopted the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program in 1990 after subcontracting plans and quarterly reports, SF 294s, became public that indicated the Pentagon and some prime contractors were violating federal law establishing small business contracting goals.
The Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program was disguised as a program to increase subcontracting opportunities for small businesses. In reality it removed all transparency and eliminated any penalties such as "liquidated damages" for any prime contractor that failed to achieve their small business subcontracting goals.
The ASBL believes the real goal of the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program is to obscure data that has previously been publicly available and shows that the Pentagon and prime contractors have violated federal contracting law. The ASBL estimates small businesses have been defrauded out of over one trillion dollars in subcontracts over the last 25 years as a result of the Test Program.
The program has now been tested for 25 years and the Pentagon has consistently refused to release any data on the results of the Test Program.
A 2004 Government Accountability Office investigation found no evidence the Test Program had ever increased subcontracting opportunities for small businesses.
The language in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Bill (H.R. 4435) proposes to renew the Test Program into its 28th year. The language in Section 811of the bill acknowledges that over the last 25 years there has never been any evidence the Test Program has achieved any of its stated goals.
The ASBL has also filed suit in Federal District Court in San Francisco against the Pentagon for refusing to release data from Sikorsky submitted under the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program.
During the last 25 years no journalist has ever reported on the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program or the goal of the program to increase subcontracting opportunities for small businesses by removing all transparency and penalties for Pentagon prime contractors that do not comply with their small business goals.