Legal Meets Practical

It’s the Friday before a holiday, and I know your time is valuable. As such – and not to be cheeky – I bring you veteran news in brief!

“You’re Fired!” Trump Gives VA Secretary the Boot.

After weeks of uncertainty atop the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”), this week President Trump dismissed its secretary, David J. Shulkin, and announced he would replace him with the White House physician, Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, a rear admiral in the Navy. If confirmed, Dr. Jackson will inherit a set of challenges that have bedeviled Democratic and Republican administrations alike. The department, the federal government’s second largest, has been burdened for years by aging infrastructure, an inefficient health care system, and an unwieldy 360,000-person work force. Sounds like a great career change for someone who has no real experience running a large bureaucracy.

As some of you might know, this follows an unflattering Office of Inspector General report that found that former Secretary Shulkin had engaged in improper conduct in overseas travel, including by improperly accepting Wimbledon tickets, unnecessarily taking his wife along on the taxpayer dime, and misusing VA resources and time.

Comment TODAY if You Want Anything With VetBiz to Change.

On January 29, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) issued a proposed rule to finally merge the VA’s and SBA’s definitions of “ownership” and “control” for veteran-owned small businesses that compete for work from federal agencies. This is part of the SBA’s/VA’s plan to merge VetBiz verification and self-certification into one program controlled and managed by the SBA.

As of now, over 13,500 businesses have been “verified” as veteran-owned small businesses (“VOSBs”) or service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (“SDVOSBs”) by the VA. Many of those businesses have not been particularly happy with the process. (Still more have not received verification). And yet, when a companion rule called for comments due on March 12, a grand total of 17 folks commented. Half of those were attorneys and professionals, including myself, who were invited to take part in a VA focus group on the changes. That is sad! Let your voice be heard. Comment tonight by midnight to make your input part of the official record.

Fantastic Veteran Business Conference in Williamsburg this June

I have been active with the National Veteran Small Business Coalition for years now, and the reason why is because they are fantastic for veteran businesses (especially in the D.C. area) looking to: get into federal business, learn more about the federal business, petition for change, and network to find teaming partners or prospective clients. This year, the conference is in Williamsburg from June 11 through the 14th and kicks off with a golf tournament. If this might be of interest to your business, find out more here.

That’s it and that’s all! Have a wonderful weekend, and stay posted for next week.

*Did you like this article? Stay informed on veteran business issues by signing up for Sarah Schauerte’s weekly blog at: https://legalmeetspractical.com. Please remember to click the link sent to your email to activate your subscription!

The SAM.gov federal website that registers thousands of federal contractors has been hit by an alleged fraud, General Services Administration (“GSA”) officials announced on March 22.

Since 2012, federal contractors have been required to register in the System for Award Management, or SAM.gov (formerly CCR/ORCA, which was phased out), and to provide detailed company information, including sensitive information such as bank account numbers. If you want to be paid by the federal government (or even the possibility of getting paid), you must provide this information and be registered and up to date in SAM.gov.

The suspected fraud involved payments from the government that were improperly diverted to third-party accounts. At this time, GSA believes “only a limited number” of companies have been affected, and they have been notified. Accordingly, if you have NOT received an email from Sam.gov that made you spit out your coffee, presumably your information is safe, although from the GSA’s statement it appears that more notifications of individual breaches may be coming.

The GSA, in its March 22 statement, urged contractors to review their bank information to determine if their account was affected. “Entities should contact their federal agency awarding official if they find that payments, which were due their entity from a federal agency, have been paid to a bank account other than the entity’s bank account,” GSA wrote. If an entity suspects a payment due them from a Federal agency was paid to a bank account other than their own, they should contact the Federal Service Desk at www.fsd.gov, or by telephone at 866-606-8220 (toll free) or 334-206-7828 (internationally), Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (EDT). Accordingly, check your bank statement to make sure everything is as it should be. Now! Don’t assume the government properly identified you as safe from the breach, and properly omitted to send you a notice.

GSA confirmed that its Office of Inspector General is investigating the suspected fraudulent activity. The affected accounts have been deactivated and systems modifications are being made to prevent further fraudulent activity.

For new registrations, GSA is now requiring an original, signed notarized letter identifying the authorized Entity Administrator for the entity associated with the DUNS number before a new SAM.gov entity registration will be activated.

This is the worst breach of SAM.gov yet. Back in 2013, a glitch in the system enabled those using its search function to access sensitive information, but there were no reported incidents of resulting theft. While right now, the details are sketchy, soon there should be information relating to the number of contractors affected and the amount of funds diverted.

For more information, access the GSA statement here.

For updates and other information that affects federal government contractors, follow Sarah Schauerte’s legal blog at: https://legalmeetspractical.com.