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June 4, 2010 - A short 6 months ago, a government investigation exposed almost universal fraud plaguing a program that set aside contracts for disabled veteran owned businesses. Despite the exposure, companies not eligible to receive federal contracts are still doing so.
The Veterans Benefits Act of 2003 (VBA) allowed those businesses owned by service-disabled veterans to be awarded sole-source contracts. The program started well but complaints started to flood in soon after. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) received more than 100 complaints alleging abuse within the program and chose10 to investigate; they discovered fraud in all of them. The fraud they discovered amounted to approximately $100 million in federal contracts.
While the fraud is bad enough, what makes the situation worse is 8 of those 10 companies continue to exist on the government registry as eligible to receive contracts. Of those 8, 5 of them have even been awarded $5 million in contracts while continuing to pose as disabled veteran run businesses.
It is apparently impossible to be removed from the VBA once a company gets into the program. Further, there were even instances where government contracting officers were allowing it to happen with full knowledge. The fraud is easy to commit because at present there is nobody verifying that the companies are truly owned by disabled veterans.
It is now mandatory for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to verify the forms but because it wasn't required in the beginning, the VA has a backlog of forms to go through before processing any new ones. Worse, of the 10 companies the GAO investigated, 2 of them were certified as eligible for contracts.
U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye (D-Virginia Beach) is the chair of a House subcommittee investigating the abuses and recently introduced a bill aimed to end the rampant abuse. The bill provides criminal penalties where there currently are none for fraudulently representing a business as being veteran owned where it is not.
Soldiers can return home with a number of conditions, injuries, and aggravated preexisting conditions. If you believe you have a service-connected physical or psychological injury you may be entitled to Veterans’ Disability Compensation.
At LaVan and Neidenberg, we are determined to secure veterans their rightful disability compensation and disability rating. We wrote this book for you! In it you will find valuable tips on how to navigate the claims process and avoid common pitfalls. Request your FREE copy today!
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