According to recent Congressional testimony, headway is being made towards minimizing wait times for inclusion in the VA’s VetBiz Vendor Information Pages (VIP) database (VetBiz). Unfortunately, this headway does little to benefit businesses waiting to reapply or on a decision for reconsideration.
Listing in VetBiz is mandatory in order for veteran-owned businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSBs) to receive set-asides from the VA. However, businesses seeking to be included in VetBiz have often found themselves excluded, many times after waiting months to receive decisions on their applications. In fact, in 2011 60% of all initial applications to the VetBiz program were denied.
Veteran contractors and advocates have complained long and loud regarding the delays and issues with VetBiz. After all, its purpose is to benefit eligible veteran-owned businesses. This purpose is undermined if eligible contractors are not listed.
On August 2, 2012, Mr. Thomas Leney, the executive director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, appeared before Congress and testified relating to the VetBiz verification process. This testimony followed up on a prior hearing on November 30, 2011, and again, it addressed a question all veteran contractors want answered: is there an improvement in VetBiz application processing times?
The short answer is “yes.” Mr. Leney on November 30, 2011 had testified that the average application processing time was 75 days. During the more recent August 2, 2012 hearing, Mr. Leney stated that a July 2011 processing time of 130 days had been “improved upon” but declined to say whether the 75-day forecast was still accurate.
For veteran contractors who have been denied, however, the answer is “not really.” For veteran contractors requesting reconsideration, wait times are much longer than 75 days, or even 130 days. When Mr. Leney appeared before Congress on August 2, 2012, he relayed that requests for reconsideration are currently taking 200 days to process. (If this number remains accurate, this means that a business will still be waiting for a decision after the date on which it would have been eligible to reapply). This is despite the fact that under regulation, requests for reconsideration will be processed within sixty days. Luckily for the VA, key conditional language (“when practicable”) makes it okay for the VA to take 200 days instead.
The complication for firms requesting reconsideration is that the CVE will not limit its re-evaluation to prior problematic parts of the business’ application. Rather, the regulations provide that upon a motion for reconsideration, the Director of the CVE may either approve the application, deny the application on the same grounds, or deny the application on different grounds. (38 CFR 74.13). If the application is denied on the same grounds, a six-month waiting period applies until the applicant can reapply to VetBiz. If the application is denied on different grounds, the applicant may again request reconsideration. (38 CFR 74.13(c)).
For those firms that choose to reapply, a six month waiting period applies. Thus, even if the actual processing time is relatively fast, the contractor must also add the six months onto the total waiting time.
The takeaway here is that while the CVE has improved upon its processing time for applications, firms that have been denied inclusion do not reap the benefits. This is clear by simply doing the math, which is based on the conditional factors of VA wait times and the assumption that a reapplication or motion for reconsideration will be successful. Know that a change in wait times, or another denial, will alter these estimates:
- If a firm is denied and waits to reapply, it will take approximately nine and a half months for them to be included in VetBiz upon a successful reapplication (including the six month wait period, plus the three and a half months of processing time).
- If a firm is denied and requests reconsideration, it will take approximately eight months for them to be included in VetBiz upon a successful motion for reconsideration (including the one month the business has to make the request, plus the current seven-month wait time).
In short, only initial applicants are truly benefited by the improvement in wait times. With the 200-day processing estimate for motions for reconsiderations, and the six-month penalty period applied for reapplications, these contractors still find themselves waiting for considerable periods of time to be included in VetBiz. Thus, the message is clear: make sure that your application is airtight the first time around. And if it’s too late for that, sit back and wait.
Did you find this article informative? If so, sign up for my weekly blog on veterans issues and updates at: https://legalmeetspractical.com. Make sure to click the link sent to your email to activate your subscription! Also, my frequently-updated webpage on VetBiz verification FAQs may be accessed here. (created based on my practical experience as a certified VA VetBiz counselor).
