VOICES-The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General has found evidence that one of the embattled agency’s regional offices has been sending unopened correspondence from veterans directly to the shredder – rather than dealing with the claims.
According to a report released Monday, the OIG launched an “unannounced inspection” of the VA’s Los Angeles regional office after hearing allegations that staff there has been shredding mail related to disability compensation claims. Although the OIG cannot say how often this might have happened, it did find examples of unopened mail lined up for the shredder that should have instead been opened and read.
The report states:
“Although we cannot quantify or identify claims-related documents that the VARO may have shredded prior to our review, we found nine claims-related documents that VARO staff incorrectly placed in personal shred bins for non-claims related documents.”
By placing the unopened letters in the “shred bins,” the workers at the Los Angeles regional office were able to bypass the first level of control, which requires that all correspondence from veterans be reviewed before it is shredded.
According to the report, five of the claims lacked the initials of both the employee and supervisor who first looked at them, while the other four only had the employee’s initials.
The report continued:
“If VARO staff and their supervisors followed VBA policy, these nine claims-related documents would not have been placed in personal shred bins that are designated for non-claims related documents.”
Had the OIG not interceded, the report predicted:
“…it is likely that VARO staff would have inappropriately destroyed the nine claims-related documents we found. This would have prevented the documents from becoming part of the veterans’ permanent records and potentially affect veterans’ benefits.”
Veterans Affairs’ regional offices are supposed to have a records management officer on staff to prevent incidents like this from happening. The investigation, however, found that no one held this position from August 2014 through February 2015, as the person previously holding the position was promoted and the office’s assistant director “determined that it wasn’t necessary” to replace him or her.
According to the report, the temporary officials who tried to fill in during that period lacked the proper training for the position, making it easier for the unopened letters to make it to the shred bins.
The office was unable to provide any documentation regarding what documents it shredded over the past two years.
(Katie LaPotin writes for the Independent Journal Review, where this was originally posted.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 70
Aug 28, 2015
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