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 GAOs 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 wasnt 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?
rpannier
(24,304 posts)DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)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.