U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce Study Finds Billions in Federal Contracts May Be Falsely Attributed to Spending With Women-Owned Firms
FY 2006 and FY 2007 Bush Administration Contracting Reports Grossly Overstate Spending With Women-Owned Firms; Billions of Dollars Going to Dozens of 'Women-Owned' Firms May Actually Have Male CEOs
Published on Sep 25, 2008 - 10:59:03 AM

By: U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 2008 - A new report prepared by the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce(TM) (http://www.uswcc.org/report2.pdf) finds that potentially billions of dollars in reported spending with women-owned firms may be grossly overstated as dozens of firms with male CEOs are included in the reporting by the federal data system.

The U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce study found that in FY 2006 twenty-seven of the top-fifty firms attributed as "women-owned" receiving federal contract dollars in the Federal Procurement Data System may have male CEOs. These companies (and other top-fifty companies in FY 2005, FY 2007, and FY 2008 YTD) show similar miss-attribution.

"I am appalled by the lack of accountability shown by this administration and the sheer gall of erroneously designating billions of dollars in contracts as going to women-owned businesses when it is obvious that firms with male CEOs are not women-owned," said Margot Dorfman, CEO of the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce. "The Bush Administration has failed to come close to meeting the decade old goal for contracting with women-owned firms, and instead of telling American women the truth, has manipulated the federal data reporting system to hide their failures. With this report, we will not let them hide any longer."

In 1994, the federal government established a paltry goal of five percent for contracting with women-owned firms. Since that year, there has been a tremendous growth in the number of women-owned firms. Women are now the majority owners of twenty-nine percent of all firms in America. Even with this growth, and ownership of nearly one-third of all businesses in America, the federal government has failed to provide women with fair access to federal contracts. While total federal spending grew from $200 billion in 1999 to over $340 billion in 2006 -- an increase of $140B -- spending with women-owned firms increased only $5 billion.

"This Administration has been fighting against providing fair opportunities for women-owned firms cheating us out of billions of dollars every year," continues Dorfman. "Looking carefully at the purchasing habits of the federal agencies, we also found that many agencies are clustering their purchasing with just a handful of women-owned firms to achieve their contracting goals leaving thousands of women-owned firms without opportunity." The U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce found that nine federal agencies spent more than fifty-percent of their total acquisition dollars with women-owned firms with just ten firms each. These are: Treasury (82%), Air Force (79%), HUD (77%), Education (76%), EPA (59%), NASA (59%), Dept. of State (59%), Dept. of Energy (53%), and Dept of Commerce (52%).

For more information on the failure to provide fair access to federal contracts for women business owners, see the January 2008 report, "Women Business Owners Blocked from Fair Access to Federal Contracts" available at http://www.uswcc.org/report.pdf.

The U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce(TM) (http://www.uswcc.org/) is the leading advocate for women on economic and leadership issues. With over 500,000 members, the USWCC creates opportunities and change for women by building a strong community voice, lobbying for members, and providing programs and benefits to support the economic growth of women across America. The USWCC is a not-for-profit 501(c)6 organization founded in 2001; its headquarters offices are located in Washington, D.C.

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