Guam Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Business Procurement Preference

Most veteran contracting preferences are a percentage knocked off your bid for scoring purposes. Guam's is stronger than that, and the verb is the reason. 5 GCA § 5011, added by Public Law 31-115 on September 30, 2011: notwithstanding any provision of law, and except for the procurement of professional services, if any entity of the government of Guam or any entity expending governmental funds intends to procure a supply or service that is offered by a business at least fifty-one percent owned by service-disabled veterans, "that entity shall procure such supply or service from that business concern," provided the supply or service is available within the period the procuring entity requires and the price does not exceed one hundred five percent of the lowest price bidder. The preference is in addition to any other procurement benefit the business may qualify for under Guam law. So the qualifying business does not have to be the lowest bidder. It has to be within five percent of the lowest bidder and able to deliver on time, and then the award is mandatory. The exception is professional services, which are procured under their own rules. And where a women-owned business and a service-disabled veteran owned business compete for the same contract, § 5013(a) directs the procuring entity to determine the lowest price to the entity, so the two preferences are reconciled on price rather than by rank. Qualification, under § 5012, has five parts and the last two catch people out. The business must be licensed to do business on Guam. It must maintain its headquarters on Guam, so a mainland firm with a Guam branch does not qualify. It must be at least fifty-one percent owned by service-disabled veterans who served in the active U.S. military service, were discharged or released under honorable conditions, and whose disability is service-connected as demonstrated by a DD214 and certified by an award letter from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Then: the DD214 and the VA disability award letter must be submitted to the procuring entity "for every service or supply offered." Not once, not annually, but with each offer. A business that assumes a registration carries over will lose the preference on a bid. And the service-disabled veteran owner must have filed individual tax returns on Guam for at least three consecutive years. That is a three-year on-island history requirement on the owner personally, not on the company, and it means a veteran who has just moved to Guam and started a business cannot use this for three years. The statute names no minimum disability percentage. What it requires is a service-connected disability demonstrated by the DD214 and certified by a VA award letter, so a ten percent rating with an award letter meets the text.