A story in Bloomberg BusinessWeek reveals how Veterans Affairs has avoided its transparency obligations through the widespread use of contract splitting:
U.S. lawmakers await the results of a Department of Veterans Affairs probe into why an agency employee processed more than 1,500 awards just under a monetary threshold that would require public disclosure of the contracts.
The inquiry focuses on a staff member who oversees orders for some VA health facilities in New York and New Jersey and who processed transactions worth more than $42 million over a roughly 18-month period. A letter from a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee said that the purchases ranged in amounts between $24,500 and $24,980.
Transactions of $25,000 and more are generally required to be published on a federal government procurement website to encourage as many bids as possible.
