Since 2008, the VA has been receiving complaints about the inappropriate shredding of benefits claims. The response, in typical bureaucratic fashion, was to create another position, the Records Management Officer, to investigate and stop these type of issues. Los Angeles did not have a RMO from 2014 to the time of the surprise visit.
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. Eight of the nine documents had the potential to affect veterans’ benefits and one had no effect on the veteran’s benefits.
[…]
Because the Los Angeles VARO did not consistently follow VBA’s controls, it is likely that VARO staff would have inappropriately destroyed the nine claims-related documents we found. The shredding of these documents would have prevented the documents from becoming part of the veterans’ permanent record and potentially affect veterans’ benefits.
Ten more “surprise parties” to other VA hospitals have been launched to determine if this is “a systemic issue.”
get rid of the higher ups and anyone else who is in collusion with them
When will we learn that gov’t only care about itself to give itself more power.
I see one of the commenters says he is a vet: I wonder how many of the others have a direct experience with the VA. I expect the services may vary from one place to another but my home care patients had nothing but praise for the services they received in NYC (and I was impressed as well). I also have a close relative who lives in another state who is very satisfied with the VA and have had friends who have had very positive experiences.