Veterans health care joined a list of more than 30 other areas of government deemed “high risk,” according to a report released Wednesday.
The Government Accountability Office report said that the Veterans Affairs Department has not addressed more than 100 of its recommendations to improve the bureaucracy-laden department, which found itself at the center of a scandal last year when a whistleblower alleged that veterans were dying on secret waiting lists.
“GAO has reported since 2000 about VA facilities’ failure to provide timely health care. In some cases, these delays or (VA’s failure to provide care at all) have reportedly harmed veterans,” the report says.
Some problems the report found at the VA include a lack of oversight and accountability, inadequate training for VA staff and inconsistent policies and procedures. The report also said that the department needs to do a better job implementing the VA reform bill that lawmakers passed last summer in an effort to improve the department.
Rep. Jeff Miller, Florida Republican and chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said that Secretary Robert McDonald, who took over the department in August, is doing the best he can to improve culture at the VA, but that there is still work to be done.
“If there’s any government program that deserves to be included on GAO’s high risk list, it’s VA health care,” Mr. Miller said in a statement. “Mismanagement, bureaucratic indifference and a systemic lack of accountability earned VA its spot on this list, and it’s going to take bold leadership, compassion and a thorough housecleaning to get the department off of it.”
There are a total of 32 areas of the government deemed “high risk” by the list that is published at the start of each new Congress. Others on the list include management of federal oil and gas resources, Defense Department acquisition of weapons and federal oversight of food safety. In addition to the VA, the other new area added in 2015 is management of information technology acquisition and management.
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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