Follow Up Review on the Mismanagement of Informal Claims Processing at the VA Regional Office Oakland, California

In our previous report, Review of Alleged Mismanagement of Informal Claims Processing at VA Regional Office Oakland, California (Report No. 14 03981 119, February 18, 2015), we substantiated the allegation that VA Regional Office (VARO) Oakland staff had not processed or properly stored informal claims for benefits. During an April 2015 House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs testimony, the Office of Inspector General received a request from Congressman Doug LaMalfa to conduct a follow up review at VARO Oakland. This request was based on an allegation that management had a list of 13,184 unprocessed informal claims for benefits. Additionally, Congresswoman Jackie Speier asked us to determine whether VARO staff altered dates of claim. We did not find evidence of the existence of the alleged list of approximately 13,184 informal claims even after interviews with current and former VARO staff, whistleblowers, and members of a previous Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) management support team. We reviewed 60 of 1,308 informal claims and found VARO staff had incorrectly processed 6 claims. Five errors contained incorrect effective dates that resulted in approximately $26,325 in improper payments. We also determined Oakland staff did not timely process 9 of the 60 claims resulting in significant delays in benefit payments to veterans. The delays ranged from approximately 5 years to 7 years and 8 months. Through information obtained from VARO staff, we obtained an additional list of 690 claims. We provided management with the list to determine whether staff had correctly processed these potential informal claims. VARO management did not provide the oversight needed to ensure timely and accurate processing of informal claims, to include the 1,308 identified in March 2015. As a result, veterans did not receive accurate or timely benefits payments. We recommended the VARO Oakland Director provide training to staff on proper informal claims processing procedures, conduct a complete review of the additional list of 690 claims that may be informal claims, and to conduct another review of the remaining 1,248 informal claims. The VARO Director concurred with our recommendations. Management’s planned actions are responsive and we will follow up as required.