When it comes to the 8(a) program, you might want to quit your day job.
The 8(a) Business Development Program, similar to other SBA socioeconomic programs such as the service-disabled veteran-owned small business program, requires the disadvantaged individual owner to work full-time at the business during normal business hours of similar firms. If an owner has a second job outside the main company, that can create problems, as it did in a recent OHA decision.
Continue readingA participant in the SBA’s 8(a) Program was appropriately terminated because the company’s disadvantaged owner took another full-time job without the SBA’s permission.
The recent SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals decision upholding the termination is an important reminder of the limitations on outside employment for 8(a) owners–as well as a reminder of the importance to 8(a) firms of ongoing honesty and forthrightness with the SBA.
The U.S. Department of Justice has indicated David E. Gorski, an owner of Legion Construction, Inc., for alleged service-disabled veteran-owned small business fraud. The indictment alleges that Gorski, a non-veteran, fraudulently represented that Legion was a SDVOSB to win federal SDVOSB set-aside contracts, and used genuine service-disabled veterans as figureheads in an attempt to avoid detection.
VetBizCentral, an organization providing various services to veteran entrepreneurs, has posted a full copy of the Gorski indictment on its website. The allegations are well worth a closer look.