Poor IT management, VA inefficiency among top federal issues

The U.S. Government Accountability Office identified poor IT management and inefficiency within the Veterans Health Administration as national concerns on its biannual High Risk List.

The GAO formulates the list biannually, paralleling the new Congress, highlighting areas of "fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement." The list includes a total of 32 issues, but this is the first time poorly managed IT projects appear on the list.

Within poor IT management, the GAO highlighted several projects resulting in waste, including $127 million spent on the VA Scheduling Replacement Project before the project was scrapped in September 2009, NASA's weather satellite network that cost $5 billion to develop before the government dissolved the system and the $1 billion obligated to the Department of Homeland Security's Secure Border Initiative Network program before it was canceled in January 2011.

"These and other failed IT projects often suffered from a lack of disciplined and effective management, such as project planning, requirements definition, and program oversight and governance," the GAO's report read. "In many instances, agencies have not consistently applied best practices that are critical to successfully acquiring IT investments."

The VA system has also been subject to scrutiny since the revelation of falsified data on wait-times, a case which ended in the death of several veterans dying while waiting for care in Phoenix VA hospitals. The report also focused on several questionable standards within the system, such as old computer systems and poor staff training, according to the Washington Post. The GAO report mentioned the VA wait-time scandal and expressed concerns about the entire efficiency of the system, especially as the population ages and demand grows for its services.

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