If you are a small business or veteran-owned business that hold a GSA Contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), you will now need to verify your company’s ownership status in order to gain priority for the department’s set-aside contracts. On January 3rd, the VA announced that it is in the early stages of verifying that the businesses in the VetBiz database (www.vetbiz.gov) are in fact owned by veterans. Companies will now have to submit an application to substantiate their status to VA as owned and controlled by veterans, service-disabled veterans or eligible surviving spouses. If you are registered in the VetBiz database as veteran-owned, you should have received notice in early December 2010 that the verification process would begin in January. In response to this notification, contractors must provide documentation within three months of receiving the agency’s notice to keep their status. Instructions from the website state that, “Failure to complete the form will result in not being able to register your business as a verified Veteran-owned or service-disabled Veteran-owned small business.” Only companies that submit the information will be listed in the department’s VetBiz VIP database. Instructions for the verification process can be found here: http://www.va.gov/OSDBU/veteran/verification.asp.

If you’re a Government Contractor chances are you’ve heard a thing or two about the E-Verify Program. For many of our clients, this system is among one of the very first they are introduced to upon GSA Schedule contract award. Utilized by over 230,000 employers, the E-Verify Program is an online system operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) dedicated to helping employers validate whether their employees are authorized to work in the United States. With the end goal of creating a more “reliable and legal workforce” the program has been criticized by many as unreliable due to its limitations in recognizing many forms of identity fraud. In fact, according to a recent study by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), the system exhibited an inaccuracy rate of 54 percent for unauthorized workers – evidence that half the time the system was unable to detect identity theft. To combat these issues and strengthen the verification process, DHS has expanded the system’s photo screening tool which enables photos to be directly crossed checked against photos contained in government databases. According to USCIS, the photo tool has “vetted over 300,000 photos with employers and detected more than 1,000 instances of fraudulent immigration documents.” In November of last year, DHS announced it would further enhance the program’s capabilities by linking it to the State Department’s passport database, allowing the system to scan passport photos to determine if it matches the State Department’s records. In addition to exploring the use of biometrics and enhancing fraud-detection algorithms, the USCIS outlined several initiatives during the system’s program evaluation last year that would directly address identity fraud: Strengthening program monitoring and compliance by expanding the number of behaviors monitored for misuse and the amount of compliance assistance provided to employers and creating mechanisms for locking Social Security Numbers detected in possible identity fraud; Instituting a Data Analytics System to automate the analysis of E-Verify transaction data and serve as a force multiplier for program Monitoring and Compliance efforts; and Deploying a self-check function to allow citizens and noncitizens to check their E-Verify response before being hired, which could also allow individuals to lock and unlock their SSNs for E-Verify purposes.

There is a wide spread misconception that if you are a Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) you are also considered to be an 8(a) Small Disadvantaged Business. First, there is no such designation as an 8(a) Small Disadvantaged Business and second, the SDB designation is now a “self certification” through your Central Contractor Registration. The SDB program was discontinued on October 1, 2008 and replaced with the self-certification process, as Brian’s earlier blog discussed. The 8(a) designation is a Business Development Program that is maintain by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Briefly, the 8(a) Business Development Program consists of the following elements: A business assistance program for small disadvantaged businesses. An essential instrument for helping socially and economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs gain access to the economic mainstream of American society. Participation in the program is divided into two phases over nine years: a four-year developmental stage and a five-year transition stage.

The General Services Administration has two well-defined goals: garnering a variety of products and services for the maintenance and safety of the nation as well as maintaining sensible asset management. More recently, alongside the increasing global awareness of green solutions, GSA has become committed to helping the federal government and agencies maintain eco-friendly goals. GSA follows environmental policies that promote environment friendly products and services and helps federal agencies buy energy-efficient and recycled-content products.

While helping my clients with GSA Contractor Post Award and governement business development services, I’ve found that many have never heard of GSA’s MarkeTips Magazine before. I’d like to take a moment to highlight the magazine and show you how you can use it as a tool to advertise your products and services under a newly awarded GSA Schedule contract. What is MarkeTips?

Congress’ Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 includes an array of provisions aimed at helping small businesses gain access to capital, compete for government contracting opportunities, expand exporting opportunities and obtain other assistance to help them grow and create jobs. One of those provisions is The Small Business Teaming Pilot Program which provides grants to well-established national companies or organizations capable of training and guiding small business government contractors. This pilot program was developed in hopes of assisting undersized firms competing for large contracts. The Small Business Administration (SBA) is in charge of distributing the money and plans to award up to $5 million in grant funding as part of the program. In fiscal year 2011 the SBA can make 10 to 20 grant awards ranging from $250,000 to $500,000. The financial assistance, which can be in the form of a joint venture, or a prime and subcontractor relationship, is expected to focus on customer relations and outreach, team relations, performance measurement and quality assurance. Recipients of the grants are also charged with helping small business locate other firms to team with for larger government opportunities, identifying potential government contracts and preparing and submitting bids.