Va Sec Puts The Spin

[Berta]

Recent VA News Releases

http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel

VA Tightens Protections for Veterans Paperwork

Peake: Lapses "Unacceptable," Procedures and Accountability Tightened

WASHINGTON (Oct. 16, 2008) -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B.

Peake vowed swift action after a handful of documents related to

veterans' applications for financial benefits from the Department of

Veterans Affairs (VA) were found among documents identified for

shredding. The documents, which were not duplicated in government

files, could have affected veterans' eligibility for benefits.

"I insist on the highest possible standards for processing and

safeguarding information in VA's custody," Peake said. "It is

unacceptable that documents important to a veteran's claim for benefits

should be misplaced or destroyed."

Peake said VA's Office of the Inspector General (IG) is investigating

the misplaced documents, and anyone who violated Department policy on

protecting documents will be held accountable.

The documents were discovered by employees of VA's IG office during an

audit at three of VA's 56 regional benefits offices, which process

applications for disability pay, VA pensions, educational assistance,

home loans and similar financial benefits.

IG auditors found a handful of documents waiting to be shredded, which

might have affected the fate of veterans' applications. The documents

were returned to the proper offices for processing.

Retired Rear Adm. Patrick W. Dunne, VA's Under Secretary for Benefits,

immediately directed all of VA's regional offices to suspend all

document shredding while IG and VA officials determine whether the

problem is more widespread. Directors of the regional offices will have

to certify in writing that no original copies of key documents or

records from veterans' cases under consideration are being destroyed.

VA has procedures for determining the disposition of paperwork.

Original copies of discharge papers, marriage certificates and death

certificates are returned to veterans or families when no longer needed.

Duplicate copies of paperwork no longer needed are appropriately

destroyed to protect the privacy of veterans and their families."

A "handful" my butt)

[vmo]

My question is this: what if anything can the VARO legally shred from a Vet's claim file?? Nothing!! Surely all correspondence from Vet to VARO is maintained in C-file? I would think that if the VARO can shred anything, it would be duplicate copies of their own correspondence. Therefor, why was not the "WHISTLE" tooted sooner?? I wonder what a VA unit chief thought in the past when they walked past the shredder with original applications/documents/C-files laying around?? I have to believe more higher up(s) than just the "shredder" knew what was (is?) going on. Heads should roll, people need to go to jail, get fired, not just ride off into the sunset with a happy retirement. My Congressman found out 5 minutes ago how I feel.

[71M10]

3 more months of this crap........i realy cant wait.

Do you plan on expiring? Please don't delude yourself that anything will really change after January 20th.

The color of the drapes, some names on the letterhead may change but this VA is ours till death!

Best regards,

Tyler

[71M10]

Greetings all:

Lets put this "handful" into perspective. I deal with Federal grants everyday. They audit on a sample. If during your audit 5% of your sample has invalid expenses they take back 5% of the total funding your institution received for that same period.

Now a handfull is hard to quantify, Ricky's, Josephine's or Jbasser's files are probably safe since clearly they could not be one handed (handfull) even by Wilt Chamberlain!

For arguments sake lets say a handfull was 5, if five peoples files hit the shredder bin in detroit every day we would destroy 1,825 files a year or 10.7% of the current total C&P pending (17,037) at Detroit VARO. Lets say Detroit is twice as bad as any other VARO except New York. I think somone mentioned New York was caught doing this in 1987. So that gives us an approximate twenty one year practice.

Claims destroyed per year (1,825*2)+(912*54) = 52,898

Clearly a 21 year practicer 21*52,898 = 1,110,858

Clearly these numbers have some statistical flaws (VA doesn't work 365 a year)!

However, It does demostrate even a handful is serious evidence of the injustice that veterans have been facing for years.

People need to go to jail and someone in the major media should call Peake on the carpet for "a handful", he knows how many veterans were affected and how many pages of documents were in those bins. Disclosing that number does not violate any veterans confidentiality or privacy.

Best regards,

Tyler

PS I have written both senators, and my Representative. I have asked for a meeting with my representative (wont happen).

[gp747]

YOU KNOW SO MUCH OF THIS STUFF YOU SEND IN IS TIME SENSITIVE.

YOU COULD LOSE A LOT OF RETRO BECAUSE OF THIS ,AND MAYBE THAT IS ONE

REASON IT IS HAPPENING . JUST THINK OF ALL THE CLAIMS HAVING TO START

AT A LATER DATE BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE PROCESS ALL

OVER AGAIN BECAUSE THEY SAY THEY DID NOT GET THE INFORMATION .

THERE IS A WHOLE LOT MORE TO THIS THAN MEETS THE EYE.

THERE IS A REASON THIS HAS BEEN HAPPENING

AND I BET A LOT OF PEOPLE KNEW ABOUT IT.

[ladypoetry85]

Hey Sportsfans

It is obvious that the folks at the VA cannot count unless they are cutting the benefits of veterans. We ALL KNOW WHAT THE VA'S IDEA OF A COUPLE MEANS. They said that only a few, couple some,etc when the lied about the number of homeless veterans, they said there was only a slight increase in the suicide rates of veterans, They said the same thing when asked how many veterans were adversly affected by some of the medication that has and continued to be administered to veterans with mental illness. So congress should make sure that a real headcount is given when they fire and send to JAIL THOSE RESPONDSIBLE FOR THIS MESS!

I saw on the food channel that a large fruit company labels, counts and takes a picture of each grapefruit before they are packed and sent out for distribution. If a fruit company can track a piece of grapefruit surely the VA can do a better job than what it is doing :P B) :P

Recent VA News Releases

http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel

VA Tightens Protections for Veterans Paperwork

Peake: Lapses "Unacceptable," Procedures and Accountability Tightened

WASHINGTON (Oct. 16, 2008) -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B.

Peake vowed swift action after a handful of documents related to

veterans' applications for financial benefits from the Department of

Veterans Affairs (VA) were found among documents identified for

shredding. The documents, which were not duplicated in government

files, could have affected veterans' eligibility for benefits.

"I insist on the highest possible standards for processing and

safeguarding information in VA's custody," Peake said. "It is

unacceptable that documents important to a veteran's claim for benefits

should be misplaced or destroyed."

Peake said VA's Office of the Inspector General (IG) is investigating

the misplaced documents, and anyone who violated Department policy on

protecting documents will be held accountable.

The documents were discovered by employees of VA's IG office during an

audit at three of VA's 56 regional benefits offices, which process

applications for disability pay, VA pensions, educational assistance,

home loans and similar financial benefits.

IG auditors found a handful of documents waiting to be shredded, which

might have affected the fate of veterans' applications. The documents

were returned to the proper offices for processing.

Retired Rear Adm. Patrick W. Dunne, VA's Under Secretary for Benefits,

immediately directed all of VA's regional offices to suspend all

document shredding while IG and VA officials determine whether the

problem is more widespread. Directors of the regional offices will have

to certify in writing that no original copies of key documents or

records from veterans' cases under consideration are being destroyed.

VA has procedures for determining the disposition of paperwork.

Original copies of discharge papers, marriage certificates and death

certificates are returned to veterans or families when no longer needed.

Duplicate copies of paperwork no longer needed are appropriately

destroyed to protect the privacy of veterans and their families."

A "handful" my butt)

[john999]

If these were Haliburton invoices being destroyed it would be fixed in 20 minutes and they would get a bonus for the trouble. Vet records and documents just don't seem very valuable to the bums running the VA. Why are not all documents scanned into a computer file instead of sitting in paper files. This is 2008 and still the majority of our files are paper documents stored in warehouses. The VA could hire a few thousand low level temporary employees to scan the files of every veteran so there would be a backup. Pay people on welfare 10 dollars an hour to scan the records. No less insecure than the present system.