Federal Reports

OIG conducted a review of recent human capital-related recommendations made to the agency and their corresponding reported statuses. The goal of this review was to help the Peace Corps leverage existing reviews and recommendations in determining where and how to direct its resources to better address its overarching human capital management challenge.

The VA Nebraska–Western Iowa Health Care System has a graduate medical education affiliation agreement with a local university. Under the agreement, the university provides the services of health professions trainees (residents) to the Omaha VA Medical Center, and VA reimburses the university for the residents’ services. Reimbursement is based on daily rates and fringe benefits provided by the medical center, which must document and certify VA-approved educational activities in educational activity records.

The medical center received a complaint alleging that a university official falsified records to inflate the time worked and signed the records as the VA site director, an act that would constitute a conflict of interest. The VA Office of Academic Affiliations asked the OIG to review six years of potential overbillings of residents’ time totaling about $1.9 million and examine the potential conflict of interest.

The OIG found the medical center did not have educational activity records for July 1, 2016, through June 30, 2020, as required. The OIG attempted to verify the progress notes the medical center used in the place of educational activity records but found them unreliable. Without reliable records, the audit team could not verify the attendance of the residents and could not determine whether the invoices were supported as required. Therefore, VA has no assurance that the residents participated in clinical and educational activities from July 1, 2016, through June 30, 2020, and may have overpaid for resident services.

For the period when the medical center did keep educational activity records, beginning July 1, 2020, the OIG was able to verify residents’ attendance and found no overbillings. Further, the OIG team did not find any conflicts of interest. Because educational activity records were implemented in July 2020, the OIG did not have any recommendations for the medical center.

The audit objectives were to determine whether program funds were managed in accordance with the ARC and Federal grant requirements.

This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Healthcare Facility Inspection program report describes the results of a focused evaluation of the care provided at the VA Texas Valley Coastal Bend Healthcare System in Harlingen. 

This evaluation focused on five key content domains:
     •    Culture
     •    Environment of care
     •    Patient safety
     •    Primary care
     •    Veteran-centered safety net

The OIG issued three recommendations for VA to correct identified deficiencies in two domains:
   1.    Environment of care
     •    Toxic exposure screenings
   2.    Patient safety
     •    Service-level workflows for test result communication
     •    Peer Review Committee meeting attendance

The OIG conducted an administrative investigation into allegations of misconduct by Judith Dawson, former Chancellor of the VA Acquisition Academy, in connection with an August 2023 acquisition training symposium held at a conference center hotel in Aurora, Colorado, and attended by over 1,200 contracting personnel.

The OIG found that Ms. Dawson knowingly accepted multiple impermissible gifts from the conference center and violated VA policy by improperly directing staff to solicit and accept gifts of sponsored social events at the symposium, purportedly on behalf of VA. The OIG also found that Ms. Dawson at times discouraged her executive assistant from raising questions or seeking guidance regarding potential ethical violations in connection with the symposium, which was contrary to legislative direction that supervisors are to foster an environment in which VA employees could express concerns. Further, the investigation revealed that Ms. Dawson did not report the spa services she received from the conference center as gifts on her annual public financial disclosure report for 2023, even though the value of the gifts exceeded the reporting threshold. Instead, Ms. Dawson indicated that she had no reportable gifts.

Due to Ms. Dawson’s retirement from VA, the OIG made no recommendations with respect to possible administrative action against her. However, the OIG recommended that VA determine whether any additional steps need to be taken regarding Ms. Dawson’s 2023 public financial disclosure based on the findings in this report. The OIG also recommended VA consider additional training on sponsorships for VA events and acceptance of free meals. VA concurred with the OIG’s recommendations and noted that it plans to issue a memorandum regarding whistleblower protections, direct the relevant senior executives to complete conference policy training and report their oversight activities within ten days following a conference, and amend Ms. Dawson’s 2023 financial disclosure report.