Oig -Audit Of The Efforts To Effectively Obtain Veterans’ Service Treatment Records

[carlie]

Veterans Benefits

Administration

Audit of

the Efforts to

Effectively Obtain

Veterans’ Service

Treatment Records

August 28, 2014

14-00657-261

Full article:

http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-14-00657-261.pdf

"Why We Did This Audit

This audit was Congressionally required by

the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014.

The Act directed the Department of Veterans

Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General

(OIG), in coordination with the Department of

Defense (DoD) OIG, to examine the

processes and procedures for transmitting

service treatment records (STRs) and

personnel records from DoD to VA.

We focused our efforts on the Veterans

Benefits Administration’s (VBA) processes

and timeliness of requesting paper STRs and

providing them to VA Regional Office

(VARO) staff, who need the records to make

decisions on veterans’ disability

compensation claims. We also assessed

initial timeliness of receiving electronic STRs

from DoD, which is a process that began in

January 2014.

What We Found

We determined that DoD is not timely in

providing VBA electronic STRs. From

January 1, 2014, through June 3, 2014, VBA

submitted 7,278 STR requests to DoD for

veterans who submitted claims and separated

from military service on or after

January 1, 2014. Of those, DoD only

completed 2,111 requests (29 percent) and

5,167 requests (71 percent) were pending. Of

the 2,111 completed STR requests,

377 requests (18 percent) were received by

VBA within 45 calendar days of the veterans’

separation from military service.

This occurred because DoD reported experiencing

challenges and delays implementing the

process of transmitting electronic STRs to

VBA. "

[Pete53]

No one is timely and they really don't give a rats ass about it either