Workload Management Challenges Identified at the Salt Lake City, Utah, Fiduciary Hub

The Fiduciary Program oversees individuals tasked with managing VA benefits for recipients unable to do so themselves. These fiduciaries are expected to make financial decisions in their beneficiaries’ best interest, but because there is the potential for misuse of those funds, employees at VA’s six fiduciary hubs must provide appropriate oversight. The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigated allegations that the Salt Lake City, Utah, Fiduciary Hub had hundreds of annual accounting reports (accountings) of beneficiaries’ income and assets that were overdue for review, and a significant number of pending electronic tasks associated with incoming mail that required action. The OIG also investigated whether fiduciary hub managers hid pending accountings to make it seem the work was completed more quickly. The OIG analyzed pending accountings data from January 2018 through April 2019 and determined there were more than 1,500 overdue accountings pending review as of August 1, 2018. By April 2019, that had been reduced to less than 100 after managers hired and trained additional staff. Based on an analysis of data for pending electronic tasks associated with action mail items from August 2018 through March 2019, the OIG substantiated that there were more than 3,000 pending action mail tasks as of February 2019. The fiduciary hub’s workload management plan did not specify how to prioritize action mail tasks and did not require review and resolution of duplicate tasks. The OIG recommended the Salt Lake City VA regional office director ensures the fiduciary hub workload management plan establishes timeliness goals for action mail tasks and a requirement for routinely reviewing and resolving duplicate tasks. The OIG also recommended the director ensure managers measure performance and monitor adherence to those goals. The OIG did not substantiate that fiduciary hub managers manipulated workload to hide pending accountings.