The backlog at the National Personnel Records Center facility in St. Louis hosting those records has been the subject of bipartisan attention on Capitol Hill. Image: Cheryl Casey/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe backlog of requests for veterans’ records increased on the order of 10 times due to the pandemic, rising from about 56,000 at the start to above 600,000 early last year, an inspector general report has said, largely due to “limited on-site staffing due to facility occupancy restrictions” during that period.
The backlog at the National Personnel Records Center facility in St. Louis hosting those records has been the subject of bipartisan attention on Capitol Hill, since the requests in many cases are made to establish eligibility for health care and other benefits for veterans.
The report said that as of the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, “most NPRC staff were unable to telework due to the manual processes required to fulfill requests.” Funding from a Coronavirus relief law enacted later that year plus increased digitization of records by the VA has helped the center, an arm of the National Archives and Records Administration, reduce the number by nearly two-fifths since that peak, it said.
The report however said that opportunities exist to improve the process, including more automation, improved communication with those filing the requests, and response to requests made due to medical emergencies.
Regarding the latter, it said that due to a lack of controls to evaluate whether such requests met the NPRC’s definition of a medical emergency, “some requesters may be taking advantage” of that process by claiming such an emergency exists in order to receive their records faster than they would have otherwise.
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