Questions For VA Contract Award

ACS Federal won the contract that the Veterans Affairs Department announced on Wednesday to pitch in, on a temporary basis, to help the department process GI bill benefit claims.

VA told me four bidders responded to the requests for proposals, and ACS Federal was chosen because "they submitted the highest quality response and have had successful past performance."

OK, it's good that the high-quality outfit will help process GI bill claims rather than have vets starve waiting for their checks, but the whole contract process raises a lot of questions.

The RFP was issued on Oct. 21, but the VA press shop did not publicly announce it until Oct. 28. Why the delay in public notification?

I'm told that the RFP went to a handful of vendors on some GSA schedule contract, but folks who are really good at keeping track of contracts told me they could not find the solicitation anywhere after their diligent searches.

Why not a more full-and-open competition? Did the VA consider using a veterans owned business for the job? And if not, why not?

This contract process was about as transparent as a battleship.