SBA size protests must be filed with the contracting officer, who then forwards the size protest to the SBA Area Office for review. The U.S. Government Accountability Office lacks jurisdiction to consider size protests, and filing a SBA size protest with the GAO will be ineffective, as one contractor recently discovered.
False SDVOSB Certifications Land New York Man Behind Bars
False SDVOSB certifications have earned a New York man nearly three and a half years in prison.
In May, I brought you the story of John White’s conviction for false SDVOSB certifications, and noted that sentencing was yet to come. Well, last week the federal judge handed down a sentence, and Mr. White is no longer a free man.
According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release, White was sentenced to 41 months in prison for defrauding the government by falsely claiming to be a service-disabled veteran. White’s company was awarded three SDVOSB set-aside contracts and one VOSB set-aside contract as a result of the fraud. When the government began investigating White’s company, White tried to recruit an actual service-disabled veteran to pose as the company’s majority owner.
John White will now have a few years in the Big House to consider the consequences of falsely stealing the honor of our nation’s service-disabled veterans and falsely stealing four contracts intended for those veterans. If the DOJ has has any sense of irony, it will ship him to a federal facility where genuine SDVOSBs are on-site providing services.
Worst SBA Size Appeal Ever? Large Business Files Off-Topic Document with SBA OHA
“No, we’re not a small business, but we could really, really use that small business set-aside contract.”
That, in essence, was the content of a document recently filed with the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals, which SBA OHA charitably treated as a formal size appeal. Reading this case left me scratching my head and wondering: was this the worst SBA size appeal ever filed?
8(a) Mentor-Protege Agreements Cannot Be Protested, Says SBA OHA
8(a) mentor-protege agreements cannot be protested by competitors, according to a recently-issued decision by the SBA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals. In Size Appeal of Professional Performance Development Group, Inc., SBA No. SIZ-5398 (2012), SBA OHA held that the SBA’s decision to approve an 8(a) mentor-protege agreement is outside the scope of the SBA size protest process.
Nearly Half of DoD Debarments Exceed Three Years: Highlights From the DoD Suspension and Debarment Report
Yesterday, the GAO released a report on the DoD’s use of suspension and debarment procedures.
The GAO concluded that during fiscal years 2009-2011 (the years covered by the report), the DoD had active referral systems in place to initiate suspension and debarment proceedings, although the GAO determined that the DoD did not properly inform the GSA of its “compelling reasons” for doing business with suspended or debarred contractors in a handful of cases.
The report weighs in at 34 pages, so in case you did not have time to read the entire thing, here are some of the highlights.
GAO: Vague Proposal Deserved “Unacceptable” Score
Politicians love vagueness. It’s easy for a candidate to promise broad generalities like lower taxes, a stronger military, better schools, or a free pony in the backyard for every American child (okay, I made that last one up). It’s a lot more difficult to provide specifics about how all those wonderful things will be achieved.
Government contractors, too, can be tempted to rely on vague declarations in proposal-writing. After all, it’s a lot easier than addressing the nuts-and-bolts of the procuring agency’s needs. But as one contractor recently discovered in a GAO bid protest decision, a vague proposal may also be an unacceptable proposal.
SDVOSBs, VA CVE Verification, and the “Full-Time Management” Rule: Unfair to Start-Ups
If you are a service-disabled veteran hoping to start a new SDVOSB, the VA’s Center for Veterans Enterprise has a message for you: quit your day job.
Yes, you heard that right. Under one of the the VA’s SDVOSB eligibility rules (38 C.F.R. § 74.4(c)(3) to be precise), “one or more veterans or service-disabled veterans who manage the applicant or participant must devote full-time to the business during normal working hours of firms in the same or similar line of business.”
The VA currently interprets this so-called “full-time management” rule to essentially bar a SDVOSB from receiving verification if a service-disabled veteran manager does not work 40 hours per week for the SDVOSB. If the veteran holds a second job, the VA CVE ordinarily denies verification, stating that the veteran cannot be working full-time for the SDVOSB if he or she is also working another job.
“Wait a second,” several service-disabled veterans have told me in surprise, “my company is brand new. There won’t be 40 hours of work to do until I win a contract. In the meantime, I need my current job to pay the bills. Isn’t there a special rule for my situation?”
The answer, unfortunately, is “no.” But there should be a special rule, because in my opinion, the full-time management requirement unfairly and needlessly penalizes SDVOSB start-ups.