Multiple Errors in Vet Benefit Program

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Multiple errors were uncovered in a multimillion veterans program, according to a 50-page audit report from the Inspector General for the U.S. Veterans Administration.
The report made public today concluded that despite the continuing discovery of multiple errors VA officials inexlicably suspended contract provisions under which they could have imposed fiscal penalties on the contractors due to excess errors.
The program, which was run by three primary contractors, performed exams on veterans seeking benefits for service related medical conditions.
The program was deficient, the report states, because it did hold contractors accountable for correcting errors and improving exam accuracy. Two of the three contractors had political connections raising charges from competitors of favoritism. Logistics Health a Wisconsin firm, hired former Associate Secretary of Defense William Winkenwerder as its president and former Secretary of Health Tommy Thompson a board chairman. QTC Management was established by Anthony Principi, a two time Secretary of Veterans Affairs. A third contractor, Veterans Evaluation Services, had no ostensible political connections.
According to the report, all three contractors failed to meet a 92 percent accuracy rate in the reports provided to the VA.
The auditors did not provide a breakdown of how much each of the three vendors were paid but noted the agency spent $6.8 billion on those exams since 2017. The audit states that VA officials concluded that language in the contracts prevented them from imposing financial penalties.c Both Logistics Health and QTC have since been sold.
Other findings included the fact that when the contractors did discover errors, they failed to report them to the VA.
"It is vital for the VBA (Veterans Benefit Administration) to make improvements to the governance of the contract exam program and accountability for it," the report states.
In a response, VA officials did not dispute the major findings but stated that improvements made since the audit period had addressed them.
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