Category Archives: Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses

SBA OHA: VA Mentor-Protege Program Does Not Protect Participants From Affiliation

Posted on by

My parents taught me that it’s not polite to say, “I told you so.”  Mom and Dad are big proponents of being polite, and their lessons (by and large) stuck.  For instance, even in this day and age of abbreviated text messages and quick emails written on handheld devices, I always begin and end every business email with a salutation, and end with “regards,” or something along those lines.  Unnecessary?  Perhaps.  But I like to think I am going the extra mile toward being polite.

Today, however, politeness is going to have to take a little hiatus, because I can’t resist saying, “I told you so.”  For more than a year, I have been warning small government contractors that assistance received from a mentor firm under any federal mentor-protege program other than the SBA 8(a) mentor-protege program or DoD mentor-protege program is probably not shielded from the SBA’s affiliation analysis.

Now, the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals has confirmed that participating in the VA’s mentor-protege program does not offer any protection from affiliation.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading →

Is it Groundhog Day? Aldevra Strikes Again

Posted on by

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?

Continue reading →

SDVOSBs: Beware of Loans From Minority Owners

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading →

SDVOSB Joint Ventures: JV Agreement Must Name Program Manager

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading →

Supermajority Voting and SDVOSBs: Another One Bites the Dust

Posted on by

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).

Continue reading →

GAO: Successful Reconsideration Request Does Not Save VA SDVOSB Contract

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading →