DOGE Helps Veterans Affairs End IT Contract Run By Service-disabled Entrepreneurs

Elon Musk's newly minted US Department of Government Efficiency claims to have helped the Department of Veterans Affairs end a technology contract run by service-disabled veterans.

A post from DOGE on X said the Department of Veterans Affairs had ended a $3.5 million contract for "enterprise mail management program support services." It said the VA is now set to do the work in-house.

The post said: "247 cancellations of wasteful contracts today, with a ceiling value of ~$999M and savings of ~$390M, including a $3.5M Dept. of VA consulting contract for outsourced 'enterprise mail management program support services' which the agency determined could be handled internally with the current @DeptVetAffairs team."

It included a screenshot of transaction information showing the termination of a $3,549,981.52 contract that was signed on November 20, 2020, and began on November 23 the same year.

Details published on USAspending.gov show Duty First Consulting is the provider of a contract for enterprise mail management program support services paid for under the federal account for Information Technology Systems, Departmental Administration, Veterans Affairs.

The published details show a total potential award amount of $3,549,981.52 including a current outlay of $1,403,053.52. The earlier action date on the published details is November 20, 2020. The end date is given as March 4, 2025, although details of any earlier agreed end date are not available.

Duty First Consulting is a company founded by service-disabled veterans that provides IT and business process consulting services to the federal government. It falls under the category of organizations known as Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs) in US government procurement parlance.

• Veterans Affairs reboots Oracle health records project for $330M
• CISA worker says 100-strong red team fired after DOGE cancelled contract
• Oracle outage hits US Federal health records systems
• Does DOGE have what it takes to actually tackle billions in US govt IT spending?

The Register has contacted the VA to give it the opportunity to to explain whether the contract was ended early, if the contractor was underperforming, or if the deal represented poor value for money. The screenshot shared on X stated: "Terminate for convenience (complete or partial)." We've also given Duty First Consulting the opportunity to provide a statement.

A spokesperson at the VA told us the Duty First Consulting contract was "was one of 585 duplicative or non-mission-critical contracts VA canceled. The reductions will not negatively affect Veteran care, benefits or services and will enable VA to redirect more than $900 million to health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries.

"To date, VA has reviewed just two percent of the department’s 90,000 contracts, which total more than $67 billion. The department anticipates significant additional savings once its review of the remaining 88,000 VA contracts is complete."

The VA says it has the current capacity for perform the work provided by Duty First Consulting. "At VA, we are focused on serving Veterans better than ever before, and doing so requires finding efficiencies, changing and improving the organization."

Like other federal departments, the VA is also operating under the shadow of suggested job cuts. According to the Associated Press, a memo proposing a Veterans Affairs department reorg that includes chopping "over 80,000 jobs" is currently circulating.

In autumn last year, the VA released $330 million in payments to Oracle, which provides electronic health records for VA hospitals and other medical facilities.

These payments are part of the original $9.99 billion deal launched in 2018 and relate to the rollout of the Oracle Cerner EHR system to four new hospitals after the program was paused for two years. The decision to suspend the program followed problems with the rollout at a number of VA medical centers, including one in Washington State, which resulted in harm to 150 patients. ®

If you're in the VA IT crew and you're currently scoping out what handling enterprise mail management and support services "in-house" will mean for your team, we are all ears. You can contact us securely and in confidence here.