Federal Reports

To comply with the VA Transparency & Trust Act of 2021 (Transparency Act), VA must provide a detailed plan to Congress outlining its intent and justification for obligating and expending COVID-19 relief funds covered by the act. Additionally, the Transparency Act requires VA to submit biweekly reports to Congress detailing its obligations, expenditures, and planned uses, as well as justification for any deviation from the plan. The act also requires the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) to submit semiannual reports comparing how VA is obligating and expending covered funds to the planned obligations and expenditures.In its sixth semiannual report, the OIG found that while VA appropriately obtained congressional approval for American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act spend plan deviations, VA did not always meet deadlines for submitting biweekly and quarterly reports. When these reports are submitted to Congress late or not at all, transparency suffers and oversight of these emergency funds cannot function as intended.The OIG also found that VA generally complied with its obligation policy by submitting quarterly reviews and that the reviewed open obligations met ARP Act requirements. However, VA did not consistently provide explanations as required for obligations that were older than 90 days or that had no activity for 90 days.The OIG made two recommendations to VA’s assistant secretary for management and chief financial officer to confirm VA is submitting biweekly reports as required by law and to confirm that required reports are submitted to Congress within the time frame established by law. The OIG also made one recommendation to the director of the Office of Financial Policy to coordinate with administration and staff office chief financial officers to ensure staff know and understand VA financial policy requirements for the review of open obligations included in quarterly obligation reports.

Objective: To determine whether the Social Security Administration ensured employees made complete and accurate capability determinations for disabled beneficiaries who previously had representative payees.

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) assessed VA’s compliance with mandated reporting of staffing and vacancy data on its public website and its clarity in related explanations. The MISSION Act of 2018 requires VA to publicly release this information each quarter to promote transparency in personnel management. VA must also report yearly on the steps taken to achieve full staffing capacity and improve the onboarding timeline for certain facilities. The MISSION Act further requires the OIG to review VA’s data-reporting website and make recommendations for improvement.The OIG found VA complied with staffing and vacancy reporting requirements by publishing data on onboard personnel, gains and losses, vacancies, and time-to-hire. However, in its 2023 annual report, VA did not address the steps it took to improve the onboarding process at medical facilities that exceeded time-to-hire metrics, as required by the Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020; VA agreed to ensure this is addressed in future reports. Furthermore, the OIG identified opportunities for VA to improve the staffing and vacancy information reported on its public website. The review team found that VA could clarify the reason for reporting vacancies as funded and unfunded, define the scope for data in its annual reports, and ensure that data sources are described consistently across written procedures and published reports.The OIG made one recommendation to the assistant secretary for human resources and administration/operations, security, and preparedness to ensure the annual reports to Congress include the steps VA is taking to improve the onboard timeline for facilities where the duration of the onboarding process exceeds the metrics laid out in the VHA time-to-hire model, or successor model, in accordance with the Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020.

DOI made progress in complying with 9 of the 13 responsibilities in the Geospatial Data Act. We found deficiencies impacting 4 responsibilities.