The Small Business Administration (SBA) requires all Veteran-Owned Small Business Concerns (VOSBs) and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Concerns (SDVOSBs) to get certified to qualify for sole source or set-aside contracts effective January 2, 203. The Final Rule shifted the responsibility for certification from the Department of Veterans Affairs to the SBA.
The substantive requirements to qualify as a VOSB or SDVOSB remain mostly unchanged except for two exceptions. The first change is that a business must be small under the SBA’s employee-based or revenue-based size standard corresponding to at least one of the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes in the business’s System for Award Management (SAM) profile.
The second change is the removal of the requirement for the business to demonstrate “good character to obtain certification. However, the business must ensure that neither the company nor its owner has an active exclusion in SAM, and neither the company nor its “principals” have failed to pay significant financial obligations to the federal government. The business must also not submit “knowingly false” information in SBA applications.
Eligible or qualified businesses must submit their applications for VOSB/SDVOSB certifications electronically and follow the instructions on https://www.sba.gov/. They must then renew their SBA certification every three years and must do so within 120 calendar days prior to the expiration of their SBA certification.
