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Federal Market Intelligence for Small Business |
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VA accused of not following small business ruleA group representing veteran-owned small business contractors is accusing the Veterans Affairs Department of failing to properly implement last year’s landmark Supreme Court decision affecting VA contracting with veterans. The National Veteran Small Business Coalition, in an April 4 letter to its members, said it wants to “shame the VA” into obeying the court’s judgment. The group is asking members for $1,000 each to help pay for the advocacy campaign. “The response has been very positive so far,” Scott Denniston, executive director of the coalition, told Set-Aside Alert. “Some people don’t want to bite the hand that feeds us. Others are frustrated and need a dialogue on this. It needs to be elevated.” The court ruled on the VA’s Veterans First Contracting Program created under a 2006 law. The court said if there are two or more service-disabled vet-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs) that can meet a VA requirement at a fair and reasonable price that provides the best value to the government, and both such firms are likely to bid, then the VA must give the contract to one of the SDVOSBs. VA officials previously had said the ruling has been fully implemented. But Denniston disagrees. He said that for over a dozen medical products--including bedpans, lancet devices, blood pressure cuffs, diabetes test kits and surgical sponges --he has anecdotal evidence from his members that the conditions set by the court were met, and yet the VA did not award the contract to an SDVOSB. Denniston suspects the problems may apply to many more products. The coalition’s evidence is mostly in the form of statements that the members allege were made to them by various VA officials or by other vendors, Denniston said. Set-Aside Alert did not have an opportunity to see or review the statements. The VA did not respond to a request for comment.
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