Here are six things to know.
1. The audit — which examined employee personnel records for the five years ending Sept. 30, 2016 — found the VA did not ensure performance of properly conducted background checks, which are required for most medical facility staff, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists and laboratory technicians. Overall, an estimated 6,200 employees at VA medical facilities, or roughly 6 percent of the Veterans Health Administration workforce, did not have a background check initiated within 14 calendar days of an employee’s appointment as required, according to the OIG.
2. In one example from the audit, a registered nurse at the Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Augusta, Ga., worked for 774 days before a background check was initiated.
3. The OIG reported background check adjudicators were not reviewing investigations in a timely manner, and “suitability staff [members] were not maintaining official personnel records as required.”
4. Auditors attributed the issues, at least in part, to the Office of Operations, Security and Preparedness, which it said “did not monitor or ensure compliance with program requirements” at the VA sites.
“OSP and VHA did not effectively manage their business processes to ensure that sufficient investigation data were created and maintained in support of program objectives,” the OIG concluded. “As a result, VA cannot reliably attest to the suitability of its largest workforce, exposing veterans and employees to individuals who have not been properly vetted. Unless internal controls and data are improved, VA and the public lack assurance that VHA has a workforce suitable for serving our nation’s veterans.”
5. The OIG made several specific recommendations based on its findings, including a recommendation the OSP “establish robust management oversight of the personnel suitability program, implement and report on the monitoring program, ensure that reliable investigation data are collected and maintained, establish quality and performance metrics, evaluate human capital needs and facilitate workload management, and obtain corrective action plans from VHA.” Other recommendations involved ensuring the proper initiation and adjudication of background checks, as well as working to improve data accuracy.
6. The OIG said representatives from the OSP and Office of the Under Secretary for Health agreed with its recommendations and provided corrective action plans. These plans include a goal to decrease the backlog of background checks to 2,500 employees by October, according to The Hill.
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