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alp227

(31,962 posts)
Wed Oct 23, 2019, 02:05 AM Oct 2019

Minority contracting program plagued by lax oversight, government watchdog says

Source: Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Small Business Administration has been plagued by poor oversight of its minority contracting program, improperly allowing ineligible firms to win contracts set aside for disadvantaged business owners, according to testimony from a government watchdog at a Tuesday congressional hearing.
The testimony came as lawmakers with a House small business subcommittee asked a Government Accountability Office official about a Times investigation that found more than $300 million in contracts were awarded to businesses whose owners made unverified claims to being Native American.

Seto Bagdoyan, the GAO’s director of forensic audits and investigative services, testified that lax oversight was a systemic problem at the Small Business Administration. As one example, he said, it wasn’t until 2016 that the SBA provided its staff with guidance on enforcing significant changes made in 2011 to its rules governing Native American contracting.

That regulatory change included redefining a Native American as a member of a state or federally recognized tribe.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-22/house-oversight-minority-contracts-native-american



Anyone expect the same right wing media that obsessed over Elizabeth Warren's relatively trivial beliefs about having Native ancestry to give this story serious, sober analysis?
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Minority contracting program plagued by lax oversight, government watchdog says (Original Post) alp227 Oct 2019 OP
Wasn't the SBA Linda McMahon's post rpannier Oct 2019 #1
This is an ongoing problem DeminPennswoods Oct 2019 #2

DeminPennswoods

(15,246 posts)
2. This is an ongoing problem
Wed Oct 23, 2019, 08:51 AM
Oct 2019

In federal contracting, there are contracts set aside for small and minority-owned businesses. SBA is always under pressure to award contracts to small and minority-owned companies, but there often are few or no qualified bidders. That leads to situations where the "owner" is a figurehead minority.

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