Magellan Solutions USA, Inc. (B-423857)

You should care.

Category: AbilityOne, SDVOSB preference, process issue

Date: 12 January 2026

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423857

Magellan protested the VA’s plan to sole-source Lexington VAMC switchboard services to an AbilityOne nonprofit rather than consider an SDVOSB set-aside. Like similar disputes at VA facilities, the case turns on the Department of Veterans Affairs Contracting Preference Consistency Act.

Magellan argued the VA should have applied the Veterans First rule of two and considered an SDVOSB award. GAO disagreed because the switchboard services had been on the AbilityOne procurement list since 1998 and had long been performed by an AbilityOne-qualified nonprofit agency for the blind.

That made the services a covered product or service under the Consistency Act, which overrides the ordinary SDVOSB preference for this category of requirement. The decision underscores that where a VA service has long been on the AbilityOne list and the statutory exception applies, the agency is required to stay with AbilityOne rather than reopen the question as a Veterans First set-aside.

The protest is denied.

Digest Agency properly procured switchboard services from AbilityOne contractor, rather than from service-disabled veteran-owned small business, where The Department of Veterans Affairs Contracting Preference Consistency Act requires the agency to procure services from the AbilityOne procurement list of supplies and services provided by qualified non-profit agencies for the blind or disabled.