In less than a week, a former Air Force logistician lost 50% of his business income and was forced to dismiss 45 employees, including other veterans, when the Ministry of Veterans Affairs canceled a series of contracts with his business.
Based on his logistical training in the Air Force, Robert Betters opened RB Consulting, Inc., a management company of the supply chain and information technologies that contracts with VA and other agencies. Last week, seven of the company’s contracts were canceled by the VA among the $ 2 billion in discounts ordered by the new secretary of VA Doug Collins.
Betters, who launched his business 20 years ago, told Task & purposes that he “blame nothing from the government” and that he understands the management that the VA and the federal government go with recent cuts.
“I am just worried about my employees,” said Betterrs, who is chairman of the board of directors of the National Veteran Small Business Coalition, NVSBC, an organization that pleads for veteran entrepreneurs in federal contracts. “My main concern is that now that many people are dismissed, can people find opportune jobs?”
Collins said that money from canceled contracts would be redirected to health care and veterans’ benefits, although the VA has not yet provided a plan on how these spending changes would work.
In some respects, said Betterrs, his business work was aimed at the same goal of improving services goes for veterinarians.
One of the company’s canceled contracts was to develop surveys for the assessments of the disabled veterans to improve the complaint process. Another was to improve the hospital supply chains for medicines and other medical products.
Scott Jensen, Executive Director of the National Veteran Small Business Coalition, said that decision -making behind the cups neglects “human beings behind all of this” and said that he was hurtful for owners of small veteran businesses who are painful as “pariahs or allenes” and “waste” or “steal from the American people”.
“They did not go hold a gun at the head of anyone to say, give me money. They followed the process. They asked for a job, the federal government has requested someone to meet the requirements of a contract, “said Jensen. “They received a mission, they fulfill the mission. If the mission is no longer necessary or if it was considered waste, OK, it is acceptable. But do not hold them responsible for realizing what someone else asked him to do. »»
“This is what contracts serve”
In a video message announcing the cuts, Collins said that $ 2 billion went to entrepreneurs to “create” PowerPoint slides, record the minutes of the meeting, give coaching and training and provide executive support.
“People, if you don’t know how to run PowerPoint slides, learn. It’s a tutorial on your computer. Go learn for free, ”said Collins. “Take your own notes. Wow, I will send you one of my pencils if you need it, but we do not pay millions of dollars so that the consultants do it for us.
The majority of contracts are identified in the category of “professional services”, which may include the need for a federal agency for a single skills or expertise in legal, economic, financial or technical fields. Betterrs said that some of his contracts were based on this designation, particularly in terms of analysis, software writing and data transfer to the VA systems in digital or modernized software.
The work, he said, was important and required more specialized expertise than VA’s staff could manage-perfect for entrepreneurs like his business.
“If I cannot hire enough people in government and I still need the work done, then I will hire support between entrepreneurs, because once the work is finished, I can always let them go,” said Betterrs.
“If the objective is to implement something and maintain it and weed slowly, then that’s what contracts are used for.”
Last year, the company obtained a contract ranges from $ 22 million to digitize paper copies of customer service investigations that the VA had sent by post to assess customer satisfaction around the evaluations of disabled veterans – a main task at the heart of the VA mission, which is also carried out by entrepreneurs.
“Our objective was to recover more responses from veterans and active service staff who had handicaps and provide a status of how your medical examiner has treated you,” said Betterrs. “We want our veterans to ensure that they are treated properly, especially when they do not work for the AV. These examiners are not examiners go at the start, so they are hired by the AV to do this. »»
As a young aviator, Betters worked in medical logistics. After the Air Force, he found a similar work in private logistics for the navy and the army, then more recently with the VA.
“My links have been in the same career for 30 years, so I haven’t really left. I worked with a lot of people with whom I worked in the 90s in the medical logistics community, “he said.
One of its recently canceled contracts was to build a master catalog for the supply chains of 172 hospitals VA. The catalog has compiled data from all agency sources in medication and medical products in one place. The catalog was intended to give the thousands of employees in these hospitals a central place to find medicines and available medical products available, such as prostheses, saving the time and money of each worker looking where to order supplies, said Betterrs.
“There are many different manufacturers for different products. If you do not have an updated catalog that has the right price, has the right contract information, has the right information on the product number, you probably spend too much, “he said. “A supply chain is only effective as the systems you have in place.”
Beyond the savings of administrative costs for staff members, said Betterrs, the project was to increase access to patient care.
“What happens to the veteran is that they could be refused if you do not have enough resources (and) people who help you with your supplies in the hospital,” he said.
Veterans contract with the VA
Companies belonging to veterans have long benefited from lightness to obtain federal contracts. Contracts for companies belonging to veterans who meet certain requirements are reserved by federal agencies in two categories: small businesses belonging to veterans, VOSB or small businesses held by veterans, SDVOSB.
During the 2025 financial year, the VA had a goal set by the SBA to give 5% of its contracts to the SDVOSB. Due to a 2016 Supreme Court decision, the VA is also mandated to award contracts to companies belonging to veterans as long as there are at least two who can meet the requirements of the contract.
Jensen said that because of the work of the VA and its anime, many contracting companies belonging to a veterinarian are found with most of their income related to the agency.
“A learned lesson is to ensure that you have a diversified portfolio, but it is very difficult when (for example) 74% of money coming in companies belonging to veterans leaves the VA because of the policies and laws that exist,” said Jensen. “Where is a business belonging to veterans if 74% of (is) out of the VA?”
Jensen said that RB consulting experience, Inc. – has reduced contracts and layoffs – is the reality of other coalition members and could continue to grow with more workforce. He quoted an SDVOSB which lost 70% of their value after the announcement of Tuesday and Wednesday morning dismissed 70 employees.
The owners, he said, “envisage a very real requirement to declare not only the bankruptcy of companies, but personal bankruptcy because of the financial investment they have in the company,” said Jensen.
Barbara Carson, director of a program at the University of Syracuse, providing entrepreneurial assistance for veterans and the families of the military, said that the cuts were larger and faster than many planned veterinary entrepreneurs.
“Those who thought they were taking risks attenuation measures may not be enough,” said Carson. “Reasonable people are really affected here.”
Jensen said there was still a lot of anxiety and uncertainty among other owners of small veterans companies due to official comments of VA indicating that it was “only the beginning”.
The VA announced on Monday that it announced that it canceled 585 additional contracts which it described as “non-criticism or duplication” and that it was the “first stage of a full audit” of around 90,000 contracts worth more than $ 67 billion.
“What is the next shoe to die for?” Said Jensen. “What we would really like is just being able to interact with leadership and understand the priorities and understand what is happening so that it is not as shocking as.”
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