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New Foia/privacy Act Procedures At Ros

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Ascomdepot68

Question

According to a letter I received today:

"As of March 3, 2014 future request with some exceptions for FOIA/PA actions received at the Atlanta Regional Office AFTER March 3, 2014 are forwarded to ST. Louis Records Management Center for scanning and processing on disc.You will be notified by that office to your request if your request is in this category."

Exact spelling and grammar of letter.

Apparently applies to all RO's. I had a hint this was what they were doing since May 2014 when my Congressman's aide was told by the

Congressional liaison at the Atlanta RO "we don't do that here anymore" and a C file disc was sent from RMC at St Louis.

I am not sure if the actual documents are mailed to RMC from the RO for putting on disc or if the documents are copied from electronic records at RMC.

I do know that that they still managed to lose 65 documents and there are still several other Veteran's documents co mingled with my records on the disc.

More efficient? Who knows. More likely to take more time and involve more handling which increases errors? Yes.

I do know that only letter and legal sized documents were on records received. Crucial maps sized 2'X3' and 2'X2' were missing.

Also another FOIA/PA "claim" popped up on eBenefits for me today. And low and behold this time they did list an expected date of

completion as 120-187 days out. FOIA supposed to be done in no longer than 30 days! No real time limit on PA items. I have an

idea though that this might be a VCAA matter. The VA is placing some requests of assorted types under the "FOIA/PA" as they

say they don't have a "button" for everything so they just use that.

Another thing I have to discuss with Secretary McDonald

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ASOM: Took me about 14 mos to get my C-file this past 01/5/14. I hand delivered request to Detroit RO. Had 2 pages from another Vet's file.

I read a legal blog back early 2014 regarding FOIA requests to VA. Most Vets not being represented by an attorney aren't aware of the FOIA legal requirements regarding timely complying with the document request. I think most just sit back and wait, maybe a call or 2 to the 800#. I think lawyers "Jump Ugly" with the VA as soon as the VA misses the required compliance dates. I can't remember what legal sanctions were mentioned but I don't think attorneys wait 6-16 mos for an FOIA production of documents request. I had also requested an appointment to view my C-File on the FOIA request. Never heard anything back regarding personal viewing.

Had my DRO Hearing 06/27/14, all issues awarded. I haven't spent a lot of time on the FOIA problems since. I did contact the VA Voc Rehab councilor that managed to place another Vets reports including all personal info, into my C-File. I called the Vet to advise him and he didn't think, me having his records in my file was a big deal.

Semper Fi

Gastone

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Gastone, that vet is probably still in the blissfully ignorant zone where I think we all spent a little time before we wised up to the ugliness of this process. Evidently, he's never heard of identity theft or HIPAA. Bet he'd think that's a big deal if he ever needs those records and discovers they're missing.

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  • Content Curator/HadIt.com Elder

I wonder how good that is for folks without computers.

After they scan my c-file, it would be great if they would let me pick up the original in person...

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NavyWife,

I had to make appointment with VARO to view C-file.

An employee sat with me a bit impatiently and copied the few pages I needed. If I'd have wanted more pages or whole thing it would have been a good bit longer wait (not same day).

This was around 2009. I must have made the request to view C-file in person at VARO previously since you can't call them.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Has anyone had luck with walking into the VARO and asking to view their cfile?

I haven't had any luck getting an appointment to view mine. The conversion to electronic records effort seems to have

made this very difficult to accomplish. There is some speculation that this might impact "Due Process" rights.

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