Audit of VHA's Beneficiary Travel Program

We found VHA lacks assurances that program costs are accurate and paid only to eligible veterans; that its liabilities, expenditures, and full costs of BTP are accurately recorded, monitored, and reported. OIG evaluated VHA’s management and oversight of VA’s Beneficiary Travel Program (BTP), which has experienced dramatic growth in costs, to ensure reimbursements for veteran’s travel was in compliance with requirements. In 2010, VHA began a series of initiatives to improve program oversight. During this audit, VHA had not fully implemented all changes. VHA has not developed a process to reconcile travel expense claims with disbursed payments. We identified differences in mileage reimbursements paid compared with approved mileage reimbursements. We recommended the Under Secretary for Health strengthen authorization, payment and oversight controls for the BTP. The Under Secretary for Health concurred with our findings and recommendations and provided an action plan.