John Plahovinsak
On November 14, 2024, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released an investigated Report entitled: VBA Did Not Ensure Employees Sent Some Letters Using Its Package Manager Application.
As part of administering a wide range of benefits and services, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) sends letters to veterans, their representatives, and third parties.
Historically, each office-maintained responsibility for printing and mailing these letters. However, in 2018, the VBA began modernizing this process by implementing the Centralized Benefits Communication Management Program.
The OIG Report focused on a portion of the Program entitled the Package Manager Application.
The Package Manager Application bundles documents from disabled veterans’ electronic claims folders and standard enclosures into virtual packages for printing and mailing.
The VBA employees then must click a “send” button to move the package to a centralized print vendor. If a send button is not clicked, the package for that disabled veteran or recipient remains unsent.
The OIG Review Team discovered that, due to a lack of oversight, about 2.1 million packages created from January 2018 through October 2022 were still unsent as of November 10, 2022.
After reviewing statistical samples of unsent packages, the OIG team estimated about 801,000 of the 2.1 million packages lacked evidence of the letters being sent to one or more of the intended recipients.
The effect of each unsent package was unique. Some unsent packages did not affect veterans’ benefits.
For example, while some letters were meant to help veterans obtain evidence for their claims, those claims were ultimately granted without the evidence mentioned in these letters.
While some unsent packages did not affect veterans’ benefits, others might have, such as those requesting evidence for claims that were ultimately denied.
Still other packages included required letters notifying veterans of decisions on their claims. These notices are critical so that veterans understand the decisions’ effects on their benefits and options for seeking further review.
In these cases, the VBA leaders did not fulfill its requirement to help veterans obtain evidence. The OIG Review Team could not determine what would have happened had these letters been sent.
According to the OIG Report, VBA leaders did not establish controls for unsent packages because they did not anticipate that employees would create packages but not send them.
While the VBA leaders had a control to identify packages that fail to print after employees send them in Package Manager, it did not develop controls to monitor instances when employees do not send the packages to the print vendor.
Furthermore, quality reviews by the VBA leaders had not identified a trend of employees failing to send packages.
In these cases, the VBA leaders did not fulfill its requirement to help veterans obtain evidence. The OIG Review Team could not determine what would have happened had these letters been sent.
The OIG Report recommended that the VA Under Secretary for Benefits implement plans to provide oversight for unsent packages in the Package Manager Application and to address packages the team identified in this review as unsent.
The Deputy Under Secretary for Automated Benefits Delivery confirmed that no office had been charged with oversight duties for unsent packages. VBA representatives stated they have since developed a report to identify these packages.
VBA leaders did not establish controls for unsent packages because they did not anticipate that employees would create packages but not send them.
The VA’s Under Secretary for Benefits concurred with both of the OIG’s recommendations and provided responsive action plans. VBA indicated it was not yet able to provide a target completion date for completion of the recommendations.
The OIG personnel will begin their follow-up on the progress of VBA’s actions in 90 days and will expect a more definitive implementation date at that time. The OIG will monitor VBA’s progress and implementation of both recommendations until all proposed actions are completed.
My Opinion: It is hard to imagine that over 2.1 million determination letters for disability compensation claims were not forwarded to disabled veterans during a five-year period (2018 to 2022).
Granted, the Package Manager Application was a new computer process, but all new processes should be closely monitored by supervisors to ensure that they are being used accurately and properly.
What I am more concerned about is the number of unsent letters by the VBA from December 2022 to the present. The OIG Report does not address this period in the compliance part of the Report.
Congress should be alerted to this situation and I will notify Congressman Greg Landsman who serves on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
BioSketch: John Plahovinsak is a 32-year retired Army veteran who served from 1967 to 1999. He is on the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Department of Ohio’s Legislative Committee. He can be reached at: plahovinsak@msn.com.