VA Finances Put Under Microscope During Hearing

The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs held a hearing today to assess VA’s steps towards financial stability after the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations determined that the department had inadequate control over its financial management systems in 2008.

Since their findings in 2008, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that VA’s improper payments, waste, and mismanagement continues to occur in its financial systems despite recommendations to control deficiencies.

“Effective remediation will require well-designed plans and diligent and focused oversight by senior VA officials,” said Director of Financial Management and Assurance for GAO Susan Ragland. “Further, the extent to which such serious weaknesses continue raises questions concerning whether VA management has established an appropriate ‘tone at the top’ necessary to ensure that these matters receive the full, sustained attention needed to bring about their full and effective resolution.”

However, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Finance for VA Edward Murray refuted the claim citing multiple changes in VA’s financial policies. He explained that the department has made changes in its policy enforcement, documentation system and risk mitigation and oversight.

“New reports and data are available to help managers conduct the proper oversight, and the Secretary’s mandate requires them to exercise this oversight quarterly and certify the results for every facility,” he said. “VA will continue to pursue technological solutions as well, but I am pleased to report that VA has made significant improvements, as recent data show.”

Earlier in the month, VA canceled its $500 million Financial and Logistics Integrated Technology Enterprise (FLITE) program, a project that was created to revamp the department’s financial and management systems after it failed to direct financial system modernizations in a manner that reduced project costs, aligned projects more closely to top priority business needs, accelerated deployments, and improved the performance of the systems once deployed.

The hearing was also held after weaknesses were found VA’s handling ‘miscellaneous obligations,’ which are used by VA to obligate funds in circumstances where the amount to be spent is uncertain.

Posted by Molly Mulrain on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010. Filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry