By Kathleen Miller and Nick Taborek
Bloomberg News
Aug 3, 2012
Neeson Levinson says the letter he received from the Department of Veteran Affairs on June 21 placed the future of his 30-employee construction company in jeopardy.
The letter denied his firm, Harbor Services Inc., eligibility to bid on VA contracts reserved for disabled veterans. His company in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, relies on the awards for almost all its $15 million in annual revenue.
Levinson, a 17-year Navy veteran, said he placed eight phone calls to the department’s help desk to find out what was going on. He was greeted each time by an automated message saying his wait time was at least 1,000 minutes, he said. The number he remembers best: 4,116 minutes, or 2.86 days.
“It was comical, but at the same it really bothered me because my business is at stake,” Levinson, who said he’s certified as 50 percent disabled, said in a phone interview.
Levinson’s experience is an example of the problems that lawmakers and advocates say veteran business owners face navigating a new certification system meant to prevent fraud. They say the program isn’t weeding out potential abuse or helping veterans as Congress intended.
Almost 40 percent of the companies listed as owned by veterans in a VA registry haven’t met the eligibility requirements of a 2010 law, the head of the VA office that certifies businesses said during a congressional hearing yesterday.
As for Levinson’s calls, Jo Schuda, a VA spokeswoman, said it’s “very likely” he was given the wait time of 4,116 minutes.
“However, that was due to an IT glitch and not the actual waiting time,” Schuda said in an e-mail. “Call volume has been heavy, but not like that.”
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