Navy veteran Sandy Shumate owns the company, Bezalel Designs.From The Gazette in Gaithersburg, Md.:
Having seriously damaged his hearing while working in a Marine Corps rifle range for 22 years — his only protection was cotton balls — Bob Daniels now manages a 120-employee informational technology company.
Milvets Systems Technology, with headquarters in Orlando, Fla., and a regional office in Lanham, Md., employs mostly service-disabled veterans such as Daniels, its president and CEO, who splits his time between Orlando and Lanham. The company provides contract staffing and training services to commercial and government clients, including the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), with which it has a $5 billion contract.
Such contracts speak to the federal government's enhanced efforts to provide business opportunities to the men and women who have served in the military and suffer from disabling injuries sustained during their service. Whether these efforts are having a genuine impact on the service-disabled veteran-owned small business community depends on who is asked.
As part of a 2004 presidential order, which set a goal of having 3 percent of federal contracts go to service-disabled veteran businesses, the GSA recently launched its 21 Gun Salute to strengthen outreach, accountability and partnership strategies.
"Everyone would agree that these folks sacrifice so much for our country and deserve to be provided with the opportunity to transition from warrior to business owner," said John Phelps, chief of staff for the 21 Gun Salute.
The GSA, the federal government's primary acquisitions agency, has more than 75 scheduled contracts with Maryland veteran business owners and 825 throughout the U.S. Most of its Government-wide Acquisition Contract orders through May, estimated at $334 million total, came through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Phelps said getting past the bureaucracy is the program's greatest obstacle, as the government comprises so many departments and agencies, all of which are accustomed to contracting with certain companies. The VA's more veteran-oriented contracting practices have been a valuable asset in helping the federal government meet its 3 percent goal, he said.
However, there are detractors among veteran entrepreneurs, who see the federal government as slow to change its practices.
