Federal Reports

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) audited the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers to determine whether the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) took timely and consistent action to discharge veterans and their caregivers from the Family Caregiver Program, and subsequently cancel caregiver stipends following a veteran or caregiver death, or veteran incarceration or hospitalization. The audit team reviewed about 680 cases and found that VHA nearly always acted in a timely manner to discharge veterans and caregivers from the program and cancel caregiver stipends. Still, in about 6 percent of the cases, veterans and caregivers were not discharged in a timely manner, causing VHA to pay at least $356,000 in improper and questionable caregiver stipends. If program controls are not improved, VHA could pay an estimated $583,000 in improper stipends over five years. The OIG also substantiated an OIG Hotline complaint that VHA improperly paid about $71,000 to the caregiver of a deceased veteran because a caregiver support coordinator did not initiate prompt action to discharge the veteran and cancel the stipend. This lapse went undetected for almost three years because the medical facility lacked procedures to ensure caregiver support coordinators took timely action to address changes in participant’s status and initiate actions to stop caregiver payments. The OIG recommended the Under Secretary for Health establish processes to match records of enrolled veterans and their caregivers against the VA’s death, incarceration, and hospitalization data on a regular basis; outline veteran and caregiver responsibilities for promptly notifying their caregiver support coordinator of deaths; and institute a working group to clarify inconsistencies and gaps in program guidance.

The Surprise Branch has 13 city routes and 51 rural routes delivered by 97 carriers (22 city and 75 rural). We used geolocation data to identify units with stop-the-clock (STC) scans that occurred at the delivery unit instead of the intended delivery address. The unit had 8,524 STC scans at the delivery unit between February and April 2019. The scans occurred on multiple routes and were intended for multiple delivery addresses throughout the timeframe. Our objective was to evaluate the delivery scanning process on select routes at the Surprise Branch in Surprise AZ.

Account Identifier Code (AIC) 589, Customer Service Meetings, is used to record expenses associated with payment authorized for refreshments served at official business meetings, employee recognition gatherings, group appreciation events, and customer appreciation meetings. OIG data analytics identified districts with unusually high amounts of local purchases and payments recorded to AIC 589 paid by cash or money order. Our objective was to determine whether customer service meeting expenses at Freedom Station were valid and properly supported and processed.

This report assesses how effectively the Engineering department maintains accountability for the company’s maintenance-of-way (MOW) and rolling stock equipment. Company policy requires the department to maintain accountability for this equipment throughout its lifecycle—from its acquisition, during its use, and through its disposal or sale.We identified a number of weaknesses the company faces in accounting for its MOW and rolling stock equipment. This is primarily due to its lack of effective procedures that would ensure managers record key information on equipment receipt, use, and disposal in the company’s asset management system. The Engineering department has also set a $50,000 purchase price as its threshold for inspections, meaning equipment costing less than the threshold amount is not consistently inspected or accounted for. Furthermore, the department did not consistently comply with federal requirements to account for equipment purchased with grant funds.We recommended that the company develop and implement procedures to ensure that it records this key information in its asset management system throughout the life of the equipment, inspects it as required, and consistently accounts for it. This includes procedures to ensure that the department complies with federal requirements governing equipment purchased with grant funds.