The Department of Veterans Affairs consistently overestimates what it will spend on non-recurring maintenance (NRM) for its medical facilities, GAO has said in calling for improvements in budget estimates.
From fiscal 2006 to 2012, the VA had higher than estimated resources available for facility maintenance and improvement, accounting for the $4.9 billion in VA’s NRM spending that exceeded budget estimates.
Given that VA has consistently overestimated the costs of such activities in recent years, VA’s budget estimates for its non-NRM activities may not be reliable, according to GAO-13-220.
Further, it said that over $2.3 billion of the higher than estimated spending on NRM could be attributed to VA having higher than estimated budget resources available.
The department agreed with recommendations to determine why it has overestimated spending for non-NRM and use the results to improve future non-NRM budget estimates, as well as to provide networks with written guidance for prioritizing below-threshold NRM projects.
