Report Summary

Title: Inspection of the VA Regional Office Wichita, Kansas
Report Link: http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-12-00249-266.pdf
Report Number: 12-00249-266
Issue Date: 9/5/2012
City/State: Wichita, KS
VA Office: Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA)
Report Author: Office of Audits and Evaluations
Report Type: Benefits Inspection
Release Type: Unrestricted
Summary: We conducted this inspection to evaluate how well the Wichita VARO accomplishes its mission of providing veterans with access to high-quality benefits and services. We found the VARO accurately processed 50 percent of both the traumatic brain injury and herbicide exposure-related claims we sampled. However, because staff did not schedule medical reexaminations as required, the VARO inaccurately processed 53 percent of the temporary 100 percent disability evaluations we reviewed. Although our results show VARO staff did not accurately process 36 (51 percent) of the 70 disability claims, these results do not represent the overall accuracy of disability claims processing at this VARO as we sample selected types of claims at higher risk of processing error. VARO staff corrected errors identified by the VBA’s STAR program, however management did not ensure staff timely completed all elements of SAOs. VARO performance in mail processing was effective and outreach to homeless veterans was adequate. Processing of competency determinations was ineffective resulting in incompetent beneficiaries receiving payments without a fiduciary in place.