Both sides agree the matter will likely end up in court, and one group of disabled vets has collected money from as many as 25 businesses for a separate lawsuit.
They want to force the agency to contract with veterans instead of with vendors on the government’s “supply schedules’’ of routinely bought goods and services. The VA spent $3.26 billion that way last year.
“Something will have to be done to resolve this,’’ said Lee Dougherty, an Army veteran and lawyer who heads the government contracting division at the McLean law firm General Counsel.
“There could be protests on every schedule purchase,’’ he said.
A Gulf War vet’s complaint
The dispute began when Rodney Marshall, a disabled Persian Gulf War veteran who owns a three-person kitchen supply company called Aldevra in Portage, Mich., discovered the VA had decided to buy from the supply schedules.
Marshall estimated that the equipment, for VA medical facilities in Chicago and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., would have cost somewhere between $3,000 and $25,000.
“If this is our opportunity, it’s being denied to us,’’ Marshall, 40, said in a phone interview.
Marshall has injuries to his hips, back, shoulders and knees, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder after serving with the Marines from 1989 to 1993.
He filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, which hears challenges to government contracting decisions.
Last month, the GAO agreed with him.
GAO officials, whose decisions are nonbinding, recommended rebidding the work.
The VA argued that regulations for all agencies required it to consider using supply schedules, essentially exempting it from the Veterans First law for certain purchases.
Ralph O. White, the GAO’s managing associate general counsel for procurement law, said the GAO concluded that no such exemption exists.
The VA has until mid-December to formally respond, though it left little doubt it’s prepared to fight.
Agency officials said in a written statement released Nov. 2 that they planned to continue to use the supply schedules, which are “designed to provide access to millions of commercial products and services at volume discount prices.’’
They said they’re abiding by the law and encouraged veteran-owned companies to apply for slots on the supply schedules.
“VA will not change how it will acquire goods and services in support of its mission,’’ according to the statement.
The VA never bought the food preparation items in question because the procurement was halted when Marshall filed his protest.
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