Review of Alleged Mismanagement of VA's Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs Outreach Contracts

We evaluated the merits of Hotline complaints that VA’s Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs (OPIA) awarded an outreach contract to Woodpile Studios, Inc., alleging that it yielded no apparent increase in the use of VA healthcare, benefits, or services by veterans and then planned to solicit new outreach contracts without evaluating the effectiveness of the prior contract. We substantiated the allegations regarding OPIA mismanagement of its outreach contracts. We confirmed that in July 2010, OPIA awarded a contract to Woodpile Studios, Inc. to provide support for outreach campaigns at an initial cost of $5.2 million. However, OPIA could not demonstrate that contract activities resulted in increased awareness of and access to VA healthcare, benefits, and services for veterans. We also confirmed that OPIA solicited significant new outreach service contracts without evaluating the effectiveness of the previous contract. OPIA management stated that leadership turnover contributed to ineffective oversight of the outreach contract management and solicitations. Consequently, Woodpile contractors performed functions that were inherently Governmental. Questionable use of a labor-hour order instead of a performance-based contract contributed to invoices for activities that did not clearly link to accomplishment of VA outreach goals. By awarding new contracts without first evaluating the performance of the prior Woodpile contract, OPIA continued to expend funds on questionable outreach activities. OPIA also lacked performance metrics to fully assess improvements in access to VA benefits and services for veterans. We recommended that the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs ensure effective oversight of outreach contract management and prevent contractors from performing inherently Governmental tasks. The Assistant Secretary should also implement metrics to ensure the outreach campaigns improve veteran awareness and access to VA services. The Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs concurred with our report recommendations and summarized corrective actions for our consideration. We will monitor implementation of the corrective action plans.