Late last week, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced the the Federal Government had met its goal for awarding federal dollars to Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs). Better yet, they announced that a record had been set - in fiscal year 2014, 3.68 percent of all federal contracting dollars went to SDVOSBs. That 3.68 percent works out to $13.5 billion.
The SBA has a number of programs to help SDVOSBs and VOSBs (Veteran-Owned Small Business). Most of the SBA's area offices have a PCR (Procurement Center Representative) to assist small businesses in obtaining federal contracts. The PCRs can help by initiating small business set-asides, reserving procurements for competition among small business firms, providing small business sources to Federal buying activities and most importantly for SDVOSBs, counseling services.
There are other SBA sources and services as well. A very good place to start is SBA's site for veterans, the Office of Veterans Business Development. Also, for local hands-on help, there are Veteran Business Outreach Centers,
Regular readers of this blog will recall several fraud cases prosecuted recently where contractors obtained SDVOSB set-asides under false pretense. The SBA is beefing up its activities to validate the status of prospective contractors bidding and in some cases winning contracts reserved for SDVOSB companies. Usually the schemes involve finding a front company that would qualify for SDVOSB status. The front company usually secures a small commission for allowing a non-SDVOSB company to use its name.
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