Large firms awarded small business contracts by U.S. agencies

An analysis by The Washington Post found "U.S. government agencies made at least $5 billion in mistakes in their recent reports of contracts awarded to small businesses, with many claiming credit for awards to companies that long ago outgrew the designation or never qualified in the first place." The Post looked at sample data from the $89 billion in contracts designated as small-business awards and found recipients such as Lockheed Martin and Dell Computer designated as small businesses. A congressional mandate calls for approximately one-fourth of all government contracts to be awarded to small businesses. These contracts are tracked by the Small Business Administration (SBA).