INTRODUCTION
We have noted improvements in the medical
element of the U.S Veterans Administration with significant advances in patient care,
records keeping and service to soldiers in need when they return from war or
fall into circumstances in which they require assistance:
We believe the VA medical care veterans are
receiving, and the associated facilities are top notch. We base this belief on having received this
care ourselves and observing the results
from others receiving VA medical services around us.
As the US has continued its war fighting
incursions into foreign countries, the VA has been required to expand
exponentially in terms of coverage, organization, programs and budget from the
tax payer coffers. The most current budget request by the Administration for
the VA tops $140 Billion for the next fiscal year.
This growth has resulted in administrative and
management challenges due to the broad swath the VA must cover across the
spectrum of our society and the transitions in which it must participate within
people’s lives from the aging vet to the returning combatant.
RECENT DISTURBING TRENDS AND OCCURRENCES
At this juncture it must be noted that the VA is falling into several of
the traps that other large federal agencies have encountered. The government is in the business of spending
money, not making it and growth of the type the VA has undergone requires
strong management and oversight.
Below are examples of areas outside the medical care elements of the
organization that are never the less posing substantial risk to the care of our
veterans.
Blatant Issues in Handling Veterans Care
Application Backlogs
As noted by Time Magazine:
“The
Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general reported that paper had piled
so high at the VA’s regional office in Winston-Salem, N.C., that it “appeared
to have the potential to compromise the integrity of the building.”
Mismanagement of Human Resources and Training
As noted by DOD Buzz:
“The chairman and ranking members of
the House Veterans Affairs Committee are demanding a complete accounting of
where and how the Department of Veterans Affairs has spent money on employee
conferences since 2009.
The
latest demand comes as the committee’s senior members released additional
information gleaned from a preliminary VA Inspector General’s report on two
Orlando, Fla., conferences held for VA human resources employees in 2011.
Among
the findings, the VA spent $52,000 producing two 8-minute videos in which an
actor portraying Army Gen. George Patton laid out the role of VA human
resources personnel and exhorted them to meet their mission. A shortened
version of the video is available below.
The
department also spent $84,000 on VA-branded promotion items, including up to
$25,000 for pens, highlighters, post-it notes and hand sanitizers.
Rep.
Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., want three years worth of
data because they say past VA testimony on conference costs has been
contradictory, ranging from $20 million in both 2011 and 2012, to $100
million.”
Mismanagement of Small Business Set-aside Programs
As noted by POGO:
“A
new report by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General
(IG) has found another large business improperly benefited from federal small
business contracts. The offender this time is Health Net, ranked 221 in the most recent Fortune 500
with $11.9 billion in revenue last year.As POGO takes great pains to point out, the contractors themselves aren’t entirely to blame for misconduct in federal small business contracting. In this instance, the IG found that VA personnel responsible for administering the contracts were fully aware that Health Net, not ETS, was performing all of the work. The VA also did not properly justify its decision to award the contracts as SDVOSB set-asides rather than through full and open competition.”
CONCLUSION
The areas noted above must have management correction, be controlled
and brought to the same standards of performance as the medical arm of the
Veterans Administration Community.
The proclivities involving lax administration, wasteful human resources
process and abuse of small businesses, many of which veterans themselves run,
must be corrected.
Doing so will insure an acceptable level of focus on
assistance to the men and women who have served in our armed forces.
