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WASHINGTON (AP) - Small businesses lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in Energy Department contracts each year because the government often gives no-bid work to large firms on flimsy grounds, congressional auditors say.
A report by the Government Accountability Office, obtained Thursday, looks at small business contracting practices at the department, whose $22.8 billion in annual awards for research, nuclear weapons maintenance and environmental cleanup make it the largest civilian contracting agency.
The report says the agency failed to meet small business contracting goals of 5.5 percent or lower in four of the last five years due to lack of controls, poor planning and questionable assumptions that smaller firms couldn't handle the jobs.
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