Microtech, SBA Strike Agreement

The MicroTech Mess

In the January 15, 2014 issue of VetLikeMe Weekly, we reported on Microtech, the embattled SDVOSB that was accused of abusing the SBA set-aside program for SDVOSB through its complex dealings with larger companies and improper representation as SDVOSB. Microtech also has been implicated in financing ‘spin-off’ company operated by a family member not eligible for the set-aside. On December27, the SBA and Michrotechnolgies, LLC came to an agreement of sorts.

For MicroTech, small-business status meant big business as a federal contractor

(Evy Mages/ For The Post ) – Anthony Jimenez started MicroTech, which has received federal contracts through programs reserved for small firms owned by minorities or service-disabled veterans and which has called itself “the Biggest of the Smalls.”

By Robert O’Harrow Jr., Published: November 12 E-mail the writer

Anthony R. Jimenez grew up in a ­working-class family and spent 24 years in the Army. After retiring a decade ago as a lieutenant colonel, he started MicroTechnologies in Tysons Corner, hoping to sell computer technology and services to the government as a small-business contractor.

In the years since, MicroTech has received more than $1 billion in federal contracts, a third of it through programs reserved for small firms owned by minorities or service-disabled veterans, federal records show. MicroTech had technology sales of more than $280 million in 2011, putting it at the top of disadvantaged small businesses in the federal market, according to a ranking by Washington Technology magazine. MicroTech called itself “the Biggest of the Smalls.”

http://tinyurl.com/my66zjs

MicroTech transformed lifestyle of its chief executive, Army veteran Anthony Jimenez

By Robert O’Harrow Jr., Published: November 12 E-mail the writer

Participants in the Small Business Administration’s Business Development Program for small, disadvantaged firms must abide by limits on income and personal wealth, under rules intended to prevent people from taking undue advantage of contracting preferences…

http://tinyurl.com/njvvzhy

Veterans Affairs called it a small-business contract, but a big firm got 90% of the money

By Robert O’Harrow Jr., Published: November 13 E-mail the writer

As the Northern Virginia firm MicroTechnologies soared to the top tier of the nation’s small federal contractors, competitors and others in the contracting world asked the same question: How could such a firm still be eligible for deals reserved for small businesses?

http://tinyurl.com/lkvdvfh

MicroTech grows too big for a technology contract, but the work stays in the family

By Robert O’Harrow Jr.

In 2011, MicroTechnologies, one of the nation’s fastest-growing small federal contractors, had a problem. It would soon be too big to continue to qualify for a certain contracting program reserved for small firms owned by service-disabled veterans.

http://tinyurl.com/mbh59ok

MicroTech among disabled-veteran-owned firms the Department of Veterans Affairs counted as small

By Cristina Rivero and Dan Keating, Published: Nov. 6, 2013

Under federal mandates, agencies must strive to direct at least 23 percent of their contract spending to small businesses, including at least 3 percent to small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. A Washington Post investigation found that the Department of Veterans Affairs awarded contracts to MicroTech and counted the revenue as going to a small, service-disabled-veteran-owned firm, when most of it went to larger companies.

http://tinyurl.com/pp65guy

Consultant for MicroTech said he vetted information with firm’s CEO

The Washington Post – In December, the SBA suspended MicroTech after agency officials said they had new information that CEO Tony Jimenez had provided “false and misleading statements” about the firm’s ownership, operations and ties to other companies.

by Robert O’Harrow Jr., Published: January 30 E-mail the writer

A consultant for MicroTechnologies LLC, one of the federal government’s most prominent small-business contractors, said the firm’s founder authorized him to submit information to the Small Business Administration in 2005 that the agency later said “appears to be a complete fabrication,” the consultant told The Washington Post on Thursday…

http://tinyurl.com/qezxnxr

Government questioned MicroTech about its role in HP fraud allegations
By Robert O’Harrow Jr., Published: January 3
A fast-growing government contractor based in Tysons Corner has been linked to investigations into alleged efforts to inflate the revenues of a software company ahead of its acquisition by Hewlett Packard in 2011, according to government documents obtained by The Washington Post. Hewlett Packard claimed the following year that the alleged fraud cost it $8.8 billion….

http://tinyurl.com/m9fkqqm
Debarment Letter from SBA
December 20, 2013 http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/998208/microtech-proposed-debarment-final.pdf ———-

Thus reads the story.

Debarments within the federal morass of confusing rules and regulations are not meant to penalize the suspected transgressor, but to protect the government’s interests. Hmmm.

Protecting the interests of the government?

This is a hypothetical scenario:

If protecting the ‘interests’ of the government means preventing the government from looking bad, then we’re dealing with a different animal.

The VA looks very good on the Small Business Administration ‘scorecard,’ which is an empirical tally of an agencies’ contracting record with small business and small business set-asides. Look at the contracting track records of MicroTech:

National Aeronautics and Space Admin.
$3,381,441

General Services Administration
$11,846,828

Federal Communications Commission
$11,454,008

Department of Veterans Affairs
$824,964,589

Department of Transportation
$49,142,551

Department of Defense
$214,270,91

Twenty-two other federal agencies also contracted with Microtech between 2004 and 2013. The total contract dollars paid to MicroTech from 2004 to 2013 = $1,381,635,608.

Though regulations indicate that for small business eligibility purposes, contracts awarded under different NAICS codes are considered to be awarded to separate companies for purposes of determining if the business is small. In other words, a small business may have receipts worth hundreds of millions, but if they are classified with a different NAICS, it remains a ‘small’ business.

Each of these agencies claimed they awarded millions to SDVOSB. These agencies looked great on the SBA ‘scorecard.’

Now that’s what you call protecting the ‘interests’ of the government.

Hardy Stone

Hardy Stone is the editor/publisher of VetLikeMe, the nation’s only publication devoted to service disabled veteran owned business.