Federal Reports

The US Office of Special Counsel referred a whistleblower disclosure to VA on July 19, 2021. The whistleblower alleged that the Houston National Cemetery’s equipment, headstones, gravesites, and other cemetery features were not maintained as required. VA referred the disclosure to the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) to assess these allegations. Although the Houston National Cemetery was generally well maintained, the OIG substantiated some of the whistleblower’s allegations. Four pieces of motorized equipment were not maintained in accordance with National Cemetery Administration standards because the cemetery staff stopped conducting routine preventive maintenance checks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some gravesites were also improperly maintained, and one water feature had a pump that was not working. None of the substantiated allegations at the Houston National Cemetery were pervasive issues, and cemetery staff were working to fix all of them. The OIG recommended that the cemetery director revise the equipment policy to ensure that routine activities, such as preventive maintenance checks, are resumed after natural disasters or emergencies and provide an action plan to repair the gravesites that the OIG team identified as improperly maintained. VA concurred with the recommendations and recognizes that maintenance of cemetery equipment and gravesites is essential to honor veterans and their eligible family members with lasting tributes commemorating their service and sacrifices. VA provided sufficient evidence to close the first recommendation as implemented and has taken action on the second, which will be closed when additional documentation has been received.

The objective of the review is to determine the effectiveness of the Commission’sinformation security program and practices. The review will assess information security program controls to support the OIG’s reporting of FISMA metrics into the Department ofHomeland Security’s Cyberscope application.

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) reviewed whether the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) complied with legal requirements to reinstate disability benefits questionnaire forms from non-VA medical providers. The forms are used to submit medical information needed for processing veterans’ disability claims. The OIG also examined whether VBA claims processors followed VA procedures for using the published questionnaires.Previous OIG reports found significant internal control problems with publicly available questionnaires. In February 2020, the OIG issued a report responsive to allegations that some veterans’ benefits claims using publicly available questionnaires were potentially fraudulent. The report noted that while VBA had taken some steps to mitigate this risk, there were further internal control and procedural deficiencies.This report finds that VBA complied with the requirements of the law by reinstating 69 questionnaires on its public-facing website. However, disability benefits questionnaires that were incomplete, inaccurate, or of questionable authenticity from non-VA medical providers were not always processed correctly when determining benefits entitlement—causing underpayments of about $13,900 and overpayments of $74,800 over the nine months studied.Improper processing occurred because VBA lacked sufficient controls to ensure disability benefits questionnaires from non-VA medical providers were properly relied on when determining entitlement to benefits.VBA concurred with the OIG’s five recommendations, including that VBA correct all identified processing errors and report back the results. Additionally, the VBA’s adjudication procedures manual should be revised and updated to clarify and communicate steps claims processors must take to verify all certification elements on the publicly available questionnaires; clarify the intent of guidance involving authenticity, face value, and validation of the questionnaires; and define valid rationale to ensure medical opinions are well supported. Finally, the OIG recommended VBA ensures claims processors understand the need to document the evaluation of evidence when using publicly available benefits questionnaires.

Due to an elevated number of human performance events in Gas Operations and Hydro Generation organizations in fiscal year 2020, we initiated an evaluation to determine if TVA was taking appropriate actions in response to human performance events.We determined appropriate actions were taken in response to human performance events in Gas and Hydro. Specifically, we determined (1) actions were taken or planned to be taken in response to human performance events and (2) initiatives were created to improve human performance in the organizations.