Category Archives: Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses

The Aldevra Saga Continues–and the GAO Throws the VA Some Lifelines

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The VA has gotten beaten up pretty badly at the GAO lately.  The governmental watchdog agency continues to sustain protests (the most notable being filed by a company named Aldevra) on the basis that the VA’s practice of obtaining goods and services on the Federal Supply Schedule without first determining whether the procurements can be set aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses or veteran-owned small businesses is illegal.

However, in a recent bid protest decision regarding the same issue, the GAO ruled in the VA’s favor—and its ruling could bring an end to the Aldevra saga (an end many SDVOSBs and VOSBs are likely to find very unsatisfactory), if the VA accepts the GAO’s lifeline.

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Is it Groundhog Day? Aldevra Strikes Again

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In the kitschy but rather enjoyable 1993 movie Groundhog Day, a still young-looking Bill Murray plays a weatherman who finds himself repeating the same day over and over.  For those following the battle between Aldevra, a service-disabled veteran-owned small business (and others in Aldevra’s corner), and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a Groundhog Day-style repetition seems to have emerged.

First, the VA issues an unrestricted solicitation under the Federal Supply Schedule.  Second, Aldevra (or someone else), files a bid protest with the GAO, alleging that the VA’s use of the FSS violates its “Veterans First” obligations.  Third, the GAO sustains the protest.  And fourth, the VA keeps on doing it.

So here’s another Aldevra protest–any guesses what happens next?

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SDVOSBs: Beware of Loans From Minority Owners

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When I was in fifth grade, I had to go door-to-door selling candy bars to raise money for a class field trip.  I worked up the courage to peddle assorted chocolates to most of the neighbors, but avoided houses with those ominous “BEWARE OF DOG” signs.  I was selling snacks; I didn’t want to become a snack myself for some large canine.

For service-disabled veteran-owned small business owners, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals has recently hung up its own ominous sign: “BEWARE OF LOANS,” at least when they come from non-service-disabled minority owners.  In SDVOSB Appeal of Rush-Link One Joint Venture, SBA No. VET-228 (2012), the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals found that loan arrangements between a service-disabled veteran and the company’s minority owners abrogated the service-disabled veteran owner’s control over the company.

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SDVOSB Joint Ventures: JV Agreement Must Name Program Manager

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In Romeo and Juliet, the heroine famously muses “What’s in a name?”  Juliet’s point, as your junior high English teacher probably emphasized, is that the young lovers’ family names should not define them.  If Juliet had her way, names would be meaningless.

Tell that to the SBA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals.  (How’s that for a segue?)  SBA OHA has held that when it comes to service-disabled veteran-owned small business joint ventures, the parties must include the specific name of the SDVOSB employee who will serve as the project manager.  Without a name, the SDVOSB joint venture is invalid.

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Supermajority Voting and SDVOSBs: Another One Bites the Dust

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Unanimity and supermajority voting requirements are one of the most common ways for a service-disabled veteran-owned small business to find itself on the wrong end of an eligibility protest (or, in the case of the VA, a CVE verification denial). Case in point: the decision of the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals in SDVOSB Appeal of Rush-Link One Joint Venture, SBA No. VET-228 (2012).

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GAO: Successful Reconsideration Request Does Not Save VA SDVOSB Contract

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Here’s a piece of music trivia: apparently, “Get It Right the First Time” is both a song by Billy Joel and a 1997 live album by Canadian punk band SNFU.  Somehow, I’m guessing there aren’t too many people who own both The Stranger (the classic Joel album featuring the song), and the SNFU opus, which offers decidedly un-Joel like song titles, such as “Drunk on a Bike” and “Cannibal Café.”

Billy Joel and SNFU might not have much else in common, but “Get It Right the First Time” is a good mantra when it comes to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.  When a service-disabled veteran-owned small business submits a verification application to the VA Center for Veterans Enterprise, it is important to get the application right from the start.  As a recent GAO bid protest decision shows, even a successful second bite at the apple might mean lost contacts in the interim.

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GAO Confirms: VA SDVOSB Set-Asides Trump Schedule Buys

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If this was a game of high-stakes poker, you might say the GAO has called the VA’s bluff.

Service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses rejoiced after the GAO held, in Aldevra, B-405271, B-405524 (Oct. 11, 2011) that federal law requires the VA to prioritize SDVOSB procurements over Federal Supply Schedule acquisitions.  But, to the shock and outrage of the SDVOSB community, the VA has refused to follow the GAO’s interpretation of the law.  Now, to mix card-game metaphors, the GAO has doubled down, issuing a second decision confirming its ruling in Aldevra.

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