SBA Lists Top 100 Small Business Contractors SBA says only one of the top 100 small business contractors in 2006 was a large company miscoded as small. In releasing the list, SBA strove to answer critics who contend that large businesses are masquerading as small ones. One such critic, the American Small Business League, questioned the accuracy of the list. (See the list.) SBA said the other 99 companies qualified as small at the time their contracts were awarded, though 16 of them have since outgrown their size standards and 10 others have been acquired or merged. Set-Aside Alert’s analysis of the list revealed another acquisition: the No. 1 company, ProcureNet Inc., was acquired by Science Applications International Corp., a large business, in November, 2004, according to an SAIC press release. SBA says ProcureNet outgrew its size standard in November, 2006. A company spokesman could not be reached. ProcureNet received $364 million in prime contracts in 2006, according to SBA. The figures were extracted from the government’s Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation. SBA led a scrub of FPDS data that it said removed $4.6 billion in contracts that were erroneously credited to small businesses. Before the data scrub, an analysis by Eagle Eye Publishers found such corporate giants as General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin listed among the leading contractors classified as small. (SAA, 3/9) “Releasing this list is part of SBA’s on-going effort to increase the transparency, accuracy, and integrity of government small business contracting data,” said SBA Administrator Steve Preston. “It also ensures that federal contracts get into the hands of small businesses and that federal agencies receive credit towards their small business contracting goals.” But American Small Business League President Lloyd Chapman said, “This is an attempt by the SBA to do what they have always done: to cover up the fact that Fortune 500 corporations are actually the recipients of most small business contracts.” The League is considering suing SBA because the agency refused to make public a list of all contractors identified as small in official records. A new rule, effective June 30, requires companies to recertify their small business status if they are acquired or merge. It also requires companies to recertify their eligibility every five years. Legislation is pending in Congress that would require annual recertification. SBA said three of the top 100 were miscoded as “other than small” even though they were small. One, Dyncorp, was listed as a small business, although it does not qualify. Eighteen of the top 100 are identified as Alaska Native Corporations. They are eligible for set-aside contracts in unlimited amounts through the 8(a) program. SBA said the top 100 received $12 billion in contracts, about one-sixth of the dollars going to small businesses.