According to a report through the Government Accountability Office released Tuesday.
GAO investigation required through the VA Transparency and Trust Act of 2021, which included a provision requiring the GAO to “review the obligations and expenditures of additional funds” the branch won from 3 COVID relief bills: the CARES Act, the coronavirus Families First Response Act, or FFCRA, and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, or ARPA.
“As of August 23, 2022, VA had committed approximately 99 percent of its CARES and FFCRA budget and 56. 9 percent of its ARPA budget,” the report states.
The GAO found that VA has required most of the additional COVID relief investment it has earned in 3 major operating areas, adding veterans healthcare, virtual operations, and IT facilities. Funding for virtual operations and underlying IT facilities has been critical during the pandemic, as VA experienced a sharp increase in the number of remote veterans it served in the first part of 2020 alone, from 59,000 exclusive daily users in February 2020 to more than 127,000 in June 2020.
Given the increased reliance on telehealth facilities and remote operations during the COVID-19 outbreak, the GAO found that budget helped in part “aid remote learning and convert paper files to virtual files so workers can continue processing disability benefits for veterans. “as well as increased IT-related efforts, adding “the provision of laptops and cell phones to help expand telecommuting and telehealth. “
The report also noted that VA has allocated significant amounts of the aid investment it earned from the 3 expenses to its Information and Technology Office, or ILO, which is guilty of providing IT-related equipment and facilities to the department. The GAO noted that the ILO “has helped VA parties transition to telehealth and telework” during the pandemic.
GAO research found that VA won a combined additional aid investment of $19. 62 billion from CARES and FFCRA in March 2020. Of the $2. 19 billion in CARES investment VA required from the ILO, $1. 84 billion, or 84. 5 percent, went toward IT efforts that included expanding telehealth services. The ILO has also allocated an additional budget of $273. 51 million to hire transitional staff to assist with virtual pandemic response efforts, adding that it offers “technicians for remote and on-site users. “
VA also earned another $17. 08 billion in ARPA funding, of which $6. 45 billion had been allocated as of July 31, 2022. The GAO found that the Veterans Health Administration, which oversees all veterans’ fitness facilities, has reallocated a total of $1. 43 billion in ARPA Funding, which it won at the ILO for IT-related facilities, such as providing “support for VHA IT projects that have been introduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “
In addition to supporting the expansion of IT and virtual operations during the pandemic, the ILO also established an Information Technology Governance Council in March 2020 to “review proposed legal responsibilities for further IT-related funding. “The GAO noted in its report that ILO officials said the council “has allowed flexibility in VA’s COVID-19 reaction while maintaining controls and oversight of legal accountability and spending of supplementary funds. “
“For example, once the additional COVID-19 budget was allocated to the ILO, its Governing Council reviewed the justifications for the proposed obligations,” the report states. “Following this review, the Governing Council took a final decision on whether to grant the investment on the justification provided. “
Help us personalize the content in particular for you: