“Recently the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced actions it will take to address challenges and issues identified by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) when it placed VA on its High-Risk List. The move is designed to address lingering deficiencies in its health-care system once and for all.”
“Every two years, GAO calls attention to agencies and program areas that are high risk as a result of vulnerabilities and in need of transformation. VA is currently in the midst of a department-wide modernization that will build capacity for long-term management of GAO High-Risk List activities and strengthen VA’s foundational business practices.”
“GAO identified five specific risk areas when it added VA health care to the Federal government’s list of 32 high-risk agencies and programs in 2015: ambiguous policies and inconsistent processes, inadequate oversight and accountability, information technology challenges…”
“…VA recently delivered a comprehensive action plan to GAO that includes these crucial steps the agency has taken to address these risk areas for VA health care, along with a number of others to improve business operations: Reducing ambiguity and red tape – Eliminated outdated policy documents. VA has already purged more than 235 expired directives and 85 percent of all outdated manuals; eliminating bureaucracy and streamlining decision making – VA has reduced central office staff positions by 10 percent and consolidated its policy and operations…” Read the full press release here.
Source: VA Takes Decisive Actions to Move off GAO High-Risk List – April 16, 2018. VA.gov.
