Attention to Those Who Steal From Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB)

The Governmental Accountability Office, or GAO, discovered fraud and abuse in he SDVOSB (Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business Program); see report GAO-10-306T (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10306t.pdf).

Pardon the old chief for not being surprised but there are numerous veterans’ organizations that knew about and had complained for decades to the SBA (Small Business Administration) and DVA (Dept. of Veterans Affairs) about businesses which falsely self-certified on the CCR (Central Contracts Register) as SDVOSB and reaped multiple fat contracts in the billions of dollars to literally STEAL from service-disabled veterans who were trying to build a business having not being able to find work due to prejudice, misconceptions, stereotypes and simple ignorance concerning veterans, particularly disabled ones.

That is why the SDVOSB Program was created: to bring about opportunities for veterans to achieve self-sufficiency through rehabilitation via entrepreneurship by creating opportunities to that end. To mince no words those who masquerade as SDVOSB are the scum of the earth deserving to be held up for public ridicule, stripped of their ill-gotten wealth and tossed into federal prisons. But that won’t happen as these bottom-feeding scumbags, even after having been discovered, were allowed to keep their contracts and make billions as borne out in the GAO report.

So what could one reasonably conclude? These dirt-bags were protected by buying influence and assuring that whatever laws that were in place had no enforcement by having no consequence. Take a look at, directly from the report, a conveniently unidentified firm in Chico, CA, that received $5 million from the Veterans Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Agricultural Research Service, and the U.S. Forest Service in Wally Herger’s District. According to the GAO report the firm was ineligible because it does not perform any work and subcontracts 100 percent of the work to non-SDVOSB firms. Further the investigation found that the firm employs three full-time workers and performs SDVOSB contract work with employees from a large international-based corporation that reported almost $12 billion in annual revenue in 2008. Additionally the firm received over 20 SDVOSB contracts since 2008 and is currently listed in VA’s database of verified SDVSOB firms.

Enough lip-service from Washington. It's time for seriously powerful laws with draconian penalties for stealing opportunities from service-disabled veterans.

21-50. Out.