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Eve Tahmincioglu

Primary author Eve Tahmincioglu has been covering small business and entrepreneurship for more than a decade. She regularly writes about small business issues for the New York Times and BusinessWeek's SmallBiz magazine. She also writes the Your Career column for MSNBC.com. She is the author of "From the Sandbox to the Corner Office."



Is it cronyism or just an SBA bungle?

Posted: Friday, February 22, 2008 8:34 AM by Eve Tahmincioglu
Filed Under: , ,

Turns out, the Small Business Administration’s training budget went mainly to an inexperienced ex-Bush appointee.

The SBA has a budget of about $1.5 million to help provide advice to small business owners, particularly minority owned, who don’t quite understand the insanely difficult process of getting government contracts.

The SBA uses that money to essentially hire businesses that have an expertise in teaching entrepreneurs how to compete for government contracts to provide training to disadvantaged businesses on how to navigate the system.

But, for some reason, Vernon B. Parker, a retired administration official that Bush appointed, got most of the money, $1.2 million to be exact, even though he supposedly had no experience providing such training.

What the heck happened?

According to a New York Times article earlier this week, the reason isn’t clear cut.


The SBA administrator Steven C. Preston says he’s going to investigate the matter.

That revelation came after he was questioned by the House Small Business Committee on Feb. 7 about the lucrative contract Parker got for his company VBP Group. (Parker had served as assistant secretary for civil rights in the Agriculture Department.)

Seems the contract award to Parker didn’t raise any red flags at the SBA until House members cried foul.

In a letter to the Committee’s chairwoman, Nydia Velazquez, Preston says:

“Based on the information provided by your staff, and some research conducted by my staff, I believe there is sufficient cause for concern over the events surrounding this contractor.”

There’s a lot of money to be had in government contracts, and often small business owners -- especially those run by minorities and women -- are often left out of the loop.

A bit of insight on how to get such contracts would go a long way in helping entrepreneurs figure out the process. Obviously the SBA and Congress thought it was a good idea to bring in government contracting experts to help them figure out the machinations.

I guess no one bothered to do the research and figure out if indeed $1.2 million was actually going to an expert.

Is it just me? Shouldn’t the SBA be doing thorough investigations upfront, before they dole out taxpayer dollars?


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Comments

I worked for a govt. contracting company.  Some contractors get paid well, but there was so much money wasted by the civil servants it wasn't funny.  They never got the blame.  They would turn around and just say how much the contractors got.  When you adjust the $ to include benefits, the civil servants usually did better.  The difference is that if a contractor screwed up a $50k project, he/she was let go.  If a civil servant screwed up a $15M project, he/she was then qualified to handle a $25M project.

Parker was just a small fish, although he still stinks.

John Mitchell (Sent Friday, February 22, 2008 4:02 PM)

WELL YOU ONLY TOUCH THE THIN ICE,SO FAR.FIRST OTHERS DON'T WANT MONEY OR TRAINING FOR MINORITY.SECOND KNOW HOW CONTRACTS ARE WRITTEN FOR SPECIFIC ,FRIENDS ,WHAT BIG STORES,AND MANUFACTORS,AND DISTRIBUTORS THAT SELL TO SMALL AND MINORITY BUSINESSES (RESELLERS).GOV REGS,PCI COML,GSA,"WHAT A SMALL BUSINESS,EXCLUDED PRODUCTS LIST ONLY SELL TO LARGE OR LOYAL RESELLERS,BANKS WHAT DON'T KNOW WHAT SBA ABOUT,SBA SLOW BUSINESS AGENCY).LAWS,FEDBID.COM,SMART PAY GOV'T CREDIT CARD WHICH GOV'T AGENCY CAN USE TO PAY SMALL AND LARGE BUSINESSES FASTER,SBA ,SCORE,EXPORT BANK,AND CREDIT RATING  HOLD SMALL BUSINESSES BACK,HEY I WILL HELP YOU WRITE A BOOK,LINE OF CREDIT,CRA,"WHAT DID JAMES BROWN SAY ,SHOW ME AND CAN DO IT MYSELF ,ALSO YOU KNOW HELPING THE POOR IS A BUSINESS ,DID MOTOR VEHICLES ASK CAN THEY SELL YOUR NAME OR GIVE YOU A CUT

MR.WILFRED J. MAYNARD (Sent Sunday, February 24, 2008 9:03 AM)

I am a former SBDC Director - former because I did voice concerns about the mismanagement within the SBA-funded program: Yes, I kept the proof/documents. Comment: The federal RFP assistance portion of the SBDC program NEVER benefits true small business - the larger corporations subcontract with a true small business and/or Histrocially Underutilized Business (HUB) and the HUB takes the lead on the request for federal funds business (Office Max, Office Depot and that is just to name a few). Training programs - the SBDC program is so rigid that we were not allowed to offer training after hours or during the times that most small business owners could attend, and when we did the prices were prohibitive - $400 to $900 per session - who can afford that? The SBDC/SBA gobbled these sessions up and forced us to be certified in these cost prohibitive courses and forced us to offer them. We were not allowed to meet with business owners when it was good for them - after their doors closed - no, if we did, we were written up, chastised and yes, driven to either quit or be fired. THE SBA and THE SBDC program MUST be re-invented before we pour more money down this bottomless pit.

Mary Carol Herrington, Navasota, Texas (Sent Monday, February 25, 2008 7:17 PM)

WELL TODAY I DON'T CARE WHO THEY GIVE THE MONEY TO, THEY DID'NT GIVE IT TO ME.ME,ME,THEM,THEM,THE ONLY REASON WE COMPLIAN IS ABOVE WHY NOT ME,US NOT THEM

WILFRED MAYNARD,NEW ROCHELLE,NEW YORK (Sent Monday, February 25, 2008 10:56 PM)

The SBA does NOT help small businesses. We received a term sheet from an SBA approved Bank and then the SBA rejected the loan for completely erronius reasons.We explained the errors to them but they refused to reconsider it. The SBA is a waste of American tax payers money.

Philip Cahill, Hackensack,NJ (Sent Wednesday, February 27, 2008 9:11 AM)

You should vote for McCain...Ask yourself why the internal and external forces of this revolving government business esablishment hate him so much.  He always stood on the side of a little man and has been called a "Maverick"...He knows how it feels to be powerless against those, who think they are clever, until they get caught drinking their own "cool aid."  You ask why SBA is not working, it is because government incompetence is rewarded and competence is squashed.  You need major changes in the governemnt to accomplish this, however as long as politicians get paid and big corporations are paid, this will go on...Use your vote and demand change...Vote for standard liers, you will get what you vote for...

Jack Spirit, Wesley Chapel, Florida (Sent Thursday, February 28, 2008 4:18 AM)

Obviously this situation is endemic of the graft, corruption and nepotism of the current administration that unabashedly bilks the people out of enormous funds while increasing the budget deficit and destroying the infrastructure of our democracy.  There are many who perpetrated this fraud and all of them ought to be prosecuted and imprisoned so as to set the example for future would be leaders;"You betray the public trust and trust the public to punish you". Unfortunately neither party, Republicans or Democrats want to hold their ner-do wells accountable to the high standards the public expects.  So the graft and corruption goes on and on and on...

Mtrangaris,Whispering Pines, NC (Sent Tuesday, March 04, 2008 8:35 AM)

You're doing a heckava job Brownie...just about every bush appointee has turned out to be an inexperienced, evangelical incompetent boob...no surprise with this one eh?

Rick, NC (Sent Friday, March 07, 2008 11:46 AM)



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