Category Archives: Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses

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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The VA’s SDVOSB Database and GAO Protests: Be Verified, Or Go Home

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If a service-disabled veteran-owned small business has been denied verification for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Vendor Information Pages database, it cannot file a bid protest with the GAO challenging the VA’s award decision on a VA SDVOSB set-aside procurement—even if the company has a request for reconsideration pending with the VA’s Center for Veterans Enterprise.

So says the GAO in MICCI Imaging Construction Company, B-405654 (November 28, 2011), a decision in which the GAO held that a company that has been denied verification lacks “standing” to pursue a GAO bid protest of a VA SDVOSB set-aside to a competitor.  Translating the legalese, the GAO’s message to non-verified companies is, “don’t waste our time.”

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GAO: For VA, SDVOSB Set-Asides Trump GSA Schedule Buys

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“Veterans First” really means “Veterans First,” even if the VA would prefer to conduct an unrestricted procurement under the General Services Administration’s Federal Supply Schedule rather than conducting market research to see if the procurement can be set-aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses.  So said that GAO in an important bid protest decision for SDVO small businesses, Aldevra, B-405271 (Oct. 11, 2011).

In Aldevra, the VA attempted to purchase certain supplies for a VA Medical center through the GSA Schedule on an unrestricted basis.  Aldevra, a SDVOSB, filed a protest with the GAO, arguing that before using the GSA Schedule, the VA should have conducted market research to determine whether two or more offers would be received from eligible SDVOSBs, and if so, should have set-aside the competition for SDVOSBs.

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JVs Must be Listed in VetBiz for VA SDVOSB Set-Asides

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Under the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans First contracting program, an eligible service-disabled veteran-owned small business must be listed as a verified SDVOSB in the VA’s Vendor Information Pages to qualify for a SDVOSB award.  But does this requirement apply to joint ventures?

Yes, according to the VA—and the GAO has upheld the VA’s interpretation.  In A1 Procurement JVG, B-404618.3 (July 26, 2011), A1 Procurement LLC and Green Carpet Landscaping & Maintenance, Inc. created a joint venture, named A1 Procurement JVG.  A1 Procurement LLC was a SDVOSB firm verified in the VetBiz system.  Green Carpet was not a SDVOSB.

The VA rejected the joint venture’s proposal because the joint venture was not listed in the VetBiz database.  The joint venture filed a bid protest with the GAO, arguing that the VA should have accepted its offer because the managing partner, A1 Procurement LLC, was listed in the database, and that a joint venture should not be required to be separately listed if the managing venture is listed.

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