The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) operates thousands of outpatient sites, as well as hundreds of Vet Centers, VA Hospitals and National Cemeteries to serve the more than 27 million veterans who have served our nation.
To meet the needs of those veterans, the VA spends billions on contract awards each year. In the last 5 years, VA contract awards have increased by more than 40%, jumping from $18 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2013 to more than $26 billion in FY 2017.
“In the last 5 years, VA contract awards have increased by more than 40%.”
As a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), GMP was pleased to learn that the VA announced an increase to the department’s goals for contracting with SDVOSBs and Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (VOSBs) in early April 2019. For FY 2019, the VA seeks to award at least 15% of its total contract dollars to SDVOSBs and at least 17% to VOSBs, representing a 5% increase in both goals, a significant change not noted since 2010.
It is important to note that while the commitment to increase contracting goals is significant, the VA has already exceeded these goals in previous years. In FY 2017, the last year for which official data is available, VA awarded $5.1 billion in contracts to SDVOSBs and $5.4 billion to VOSBs. These figures represent 19.5% and 20.6%, respectively, of VA’s total procurement of $26.1 billion.
In FY 2017, the VA awarded more than one-fourth of the dollars given to SDVOSBs by the federal government, more than all other federal civilian agencies combined. GMP is proud to provide the VA with medical equipment and supplies as well as innovative technology products and services. GMP serves more than 75% of the VA’s facilities and the majority of GMP’s contracts for FY 2017 and FY 2018 were granted by the VA.
Sources:
VA, Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, Press Releases
https://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=5232
