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By Karen Jowers – Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jun 22, 2007 17:30:05 EDT
Executives of several military job board companies are calling for an investigation and congressional hearings into a contract awarded for a new veterans job board that is a joint effort between the departments of Defense, Labor and Veterans Affairs.
“At a time when defense dollars are tight, why is DoD launching a site that competes using tax dollars with successful private-sector job boards that provide the same service at no cost to the government or to the service members?” asked the letter, signed by the presidents of Vetjobs.com, MilitaryHire.com and CorporateGray.com.
The letter was sent June 20 to the House and Senate committees that deal with veterans issues.
The Pentagon’s TurboTAP.org is run by Military Advantage, a subsidiary of Monster.com.
The letter questions why the Defense Department chose Monster.com, without competing the contract, over the more than 40,000 other job boards, which include military-related job boards such as their three, as well as MilitaryResumes, TAOnline, RecruitMilitary and others who provide such services to military job-seekers for free, and at no cost to the government.
“It could be reasonably assumed that this contract crossed the financial threshold requiring a competitive bid through the government’s acquisition process,” the letter states. “This contract should have been bid out.”
The three business owners requested congressional hearings and a Government Accountability Office investigation.
A defense spokesman said a contract for the operation of the TurboTAP site is in the process of being competed and is in the final stages of selection, under a broader “Strategic Initiatives, Multiple Award, Small Business Set Aside, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity” contract. Two or more small businesses will be awarded the prime contract, and then will compete for each task, said Marine Maj. Stewart Upton, in an e-mail response to questions.
“Until that contract is awarded, the critical TurboTAP services are being provided on an interim basis under a bridge contract,” he said. “Why would DoD, the Department of Labor, and VA create another site that duplicates what’s already available in the private sector?” said Michael Weiss, president of MilitaryHire.com. “They have shunned us. Why are we not even mentioned on the site?”
The letter to Congress also noted that the Labor Department decided last year that its America’s Job Bank, which cost $27 million a year, was no longer justifiable because it duplicates what is already available in the private sector.
The three company officials also said in their letter that nearly all the information on TurboTAP is already available through the Labor Department’s Veterans Employment and Training Service site, as well various commercial private-sector sites.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars, which endorses Vetjobs.com and owns 10 percent of the company, also supports a GAO investigation, said Bill Dozier, assistant director for the VFW’s National Veterans Service employment and homeless veterans programs.
He noted that TurboTAP links veterans to various transition resources within its subsections. “But when it comes to job boards, it only lists Monster.com,” he said. “The job boards have different arrangements with different employers. Veterans should have the opportunity to choose.”
Dozier and representatives of other veterans’ groups were due to attend a briefing on TurboTAP June 21, he said.Vetjobs.com President Ted Daywalt said the main concern is fairness.
The Pentagon “is giving Monster.com exclusive access to veterans,” he said. “All résumés are going through Monster.com. It’s the only job board on the site. This is, in essence, denying veterans access to very good jobs they might not know about.”