Accuracy Declined in Fiscal Year 2002

From fiscal years 2001 to 2002, VBA’s accuracy of decision making in the  compensation and pension programs declined from 89 percent to 81  percent. However, the agency  reported that it had improved its accuracy for that period. VBA officials  attributed the decline in accuracy during this period to several factors. We  were not able to quantify the relative contribution of these factors. These  factors included headquarters emphasis on production, the specific  processing requirements of the Veterans Claims Assistance Act of 2000,  and the relative inexperience of VBA’s claims processing staff. In fiscal year 2002, VBA made progress in increasing production of claims  decisions and reducing inventory. VBA reported that accuracy improved from 78 percent in fiscal 2001 to  80 percent in fiscal 2002. For example, VBA did not require  regional offices that failed to meet the national accuracy goal of 85 percent  to prepare strategies for improvement. Because VBA did not report comparable accuracy  rates for fiscal years 2001 and 2002 in its performance and accountability  report, Members of Congress, Department of Veterans Affairs  management, and claimants did not know of this decline in accuracy. While VBA has made  progress in measuring regional office accuracy, it has not made full use of  the results to reward high performing offices or to improve poorly  performing offices. However,  VBA’s accuracy has declined. Recommendations

We recommend that the Secretary of Veterans Affairs direct the Under  Secretary for Benefits to  report the accuracy of VBA disability compensation and pension claims  decisions to the Congress and other stakeholders in a manner that allows  for valid comparisons of accuracy across fiscal years and  better hold regional offices accountable for the accuracy of their claims  decisions, by increasing the use of its regional office accuracy data, while  at the same time maintaining an appropriate emphasis on production.
Why GAO Did This Study

The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) has a large inventory of claims for benefits under its compensation and pension programs. The Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs has pledged to substantially reduce this inventory in order to improve timeliness. In response, VBA emphasized producing more claims decisions per year. GAO was asked to ascertain how accuracy has changed since VBA increased its emphasis on production and to report on the agency's efforts to ensure the accuracy of its decisions.

What GAO Found

From fiscal years 2001 to 2002, VBA's accuracy of decision-making in the disability compensation and pension benefit programs declined from 89 percent to 81 percent. The agency had reported a slight improvement in accuracy between fiscal years 2001 and 2002--from 78 percent to 80 percent. However, we found that these two annual figures were not comparable because the agency had substantially changed the way it measured accuracy for fiscal year 2002. Although VBA acknowledged a change in its accuracy measure in its annual report to the Congress, the agency did not revise its 2001 figure to allow for an appropriate comparison with 2002. VBA officials GAO spoke with suggested several factors that may have contributed to the decline in accuracy. We were not able to quantify the relative contribution of these factors. These factors included VBA's emphasis on increasing claims decisions, the specific processing requirements of the Veterans Claims Assistance Act (VCAA) of 2000, and the relative inexperience of VBA's claims processing staff. To help ensure accountability for accuracy, VBA set accuracy standards for its regional offices. Although VBA has regional office-level accuracy data, it has not made full use of this information to encourage better performance from regional offices with low accuracy scores. For example, in fiscal year 2002, VBA did not require offices with poor accuracy to prepare improvement plans and gave performance awards to two offices that clearly failed to meet VBA's accuracy goal.