The Service Disabled Veteran
Business Enterprise Participation Program (SDVBE)
The Service Disabled Veteran Business
Enterprise Participation Program (SDVBE) was created to reward and
give credit to disabled veterans for their service and to promote
SDVBE participation in state contracting. SDVBE promotes
competition and offers greater opportunity for economic growth. It
allows Service Disabled Veteran owned businesses to bid without fear
of discrimination for the disability in questions and also to
provide veterans an opportunity to thrive.
What is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned
Business, or SDVBE? It is a business in which a majority (51
percent) is owned by one or more disabled veteran, meaning an
individual who has served in the military and is eligible for
veteran status by the U.S. government.
Each state establishes a SDVBE participation
goal for its agencies, and for most states the SDVBE goal is around
3 percent. The SDVBE participation goal is for the total contract
dollars spent annually by a department. Every state agency is
responsible for meeting the SDVBE participation goal and developing
the methods to reach it. Plus, each state agency must be able to
report their compliance with the SDVBE goal to the supervising
agency, and they must show that they put in a “good faith effort” to
meet the goal if they come short.
What are the five steps that define a “good
faith effort” by the state agencies? First, contact must be made
with the department to identify an SDVBE to bid on the project.
Then a contact needs to be made with other state and federal
agencies plus SDVBE organizations to find SDVBEs that can
potentially be of service to the department. If those efforts fail,
then advertising must be placed in trade papers to find SDVBEs
unless the department itself is prohibited from advertising.
Invitations to bid must be offered to potential SDVBE contractors,
and all SDVBEs submitted must be considered alongside all other
bids.
Although the “good faith effort” rules exist,
they are not an excuse for not meeting the SDVBE percentage goal and
working with disabled veteran owned business. There are plenty of
SDVBEs that exist and meet the participation requirements, so there
is little reason a department should not be able to meet that SDVBE
goal.
It is important for our government to support
our veterans who have served our country. It is also important to
support those who have been disabled while serving our country, and
the SDVBE participation program does just that. Where disabled
veteran owned businesses may never be considered, the program forces
state agencies to give a certain amount of contracts to disabled
veteran owned business owners. The SDVBE is just one more way our
state agencies can offer thanks, support the economy, and promote
competition all at the same time.
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