While IG investigations typically are planned well in advance, the VA IG recently conducted surprise inspections of shredding practices at 10 offices after finding inappropriate destruction of documents at one.
The IG initially acted in response to an anonymous tip that the Los Angeles regional office was inappropriately shredding documents related to veterans’ disability compensation claims. That work found that the office was not following policies on the management of paper records; auditors found nine claims-related documents inappropriately in shred bins, the last stage before they are destroyed. If the shredding had been carried out, their loss could have affected benefits of the individuals, it said.
It said that the records management officer position had been vacant for months and that staff assigned to perform that person’s responsibilities were not properly trained on reviewing documents to determine whether they should be kept or destroyed. The office also did not have the required shred logs going back two years.
In light of that finding, the IG sent teams of inspectors and auditors to simultaneously perform unannounced inspections in 10 other offices. Preliminary results show that inappropriate shredding is also occurring at some of them, and management controls “generally appear too weak to adequately protect against inappropriate shredding,” an IG statement said.
Improper shredding “has to be completely eradicated if the department hopes to regain veterans’ trust as this causes excessive delays and can result in incorrect decisions to veterans attempting to obtain benefits,” it said.
