VBA Has Made Progress but Faces Significant Challenges in Implementing the Results Act

As with last year’s business plan, VBA’s fiscal year 1999 business plan continues to focus primarily on process-oriented goals and performance measures. To help achieve its program goals, VBA has efforts under way to coordinate with other agencies that support veterans’ benefit programs; these efforts will need to be sustained to ensure quality service to veterans. VBA also faces significant challenges in setting clear strategies for achieving the goals it has established and in measuring program performance. For example, VBA considers its BPR efforts to be essential to the success of key performance goals, such as reducing the number of days it takes VBA to process a veteran’s disability compensation claim. VBA is also in the process of identifying and developing key data it needs to measure its progress in achieving specific goals. In focusing on program results, VBA will need to tackle difficult questions in consultation with the Congress. Coordinating Related Performance Goals

As VBA develops more results-oriented goals and measures, it also needs to ensure that it is coordinating efforts with other parts of VA as well as federal and state agencies that support veterans’ benefits programs. VBA is in the early stages of developing clear and specific strategies. A major challenge VBA faces in developing clear and specific strategies for achieving performance goals will be effectively using BPR to identify what actions are needed to achieve performance goals and explain how these actions will lead to the intended results. For example, one goal is to ensure that VBA is providing the best value for the taxpayers’ dollar; however, VBA currently is unable to calculate the full cost of providing benefits and services to veterans. In addition, VBA’s recently appointed Under Secretary for Benefits has raised concerns about the accuracy of data contained in VBA’s existing management reporting systems. Moreover, completed and ongoing IG audits have identified data system internal control weaknesses and data integrity problems, which if not corrected will undermine VBA’s ability to reliably measure its performance. The Results Act: Observations on VA’s June 1997 Draft Strategic Plan (GAO/HEHS-97-174R, July 11, 1997). The Government Performance and Results Act: 1997 Governmentwide Implementation Will Be Uneven (GAO/GGD-97-109, June 2, 1997).
Why GAO Did This Study

GAO discussed the Veterans Benefits Administration's (VBA) implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) VBA continues to make progress in setting goals and measuring its programs' performance but faces significant challenges in its efforts to successfully implement the Results Act; (2) VBA has efforts under way to address these challenges, which if continued will help ensure success; (3) for example, VBA is in the process of developing results-oriented goals and measures for each of its programs in response to concerns that GAO and others have raised; (4) developing more results-oriented goals and measures will require VBA to address difficult and sensitive questions regarding specific benefit programs, such as whether disabled veterans are being compensated appropriately under the existing disability program structure; (5) to address these questions, VBA is continuing its consultations with Congress, begun last year in conjunction with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) strategic planning efforts; (6) VBA also has efforts under way to coordinate with agencies that support veterans' benefits programs, such as the Department of Defense, in achieving specific goals; (7) to successfully implement the Results Act, VBA must also develop effective strategies for achieving its performance goals and ensure that it has accurate, reliable data to measure its progress in achieving these goals; (8) VBA is in the early stages of developing clear and specific strategies but has not yet clearly demonstrated how these strategies will help it achieve the intended results; (9) morever, VBA does not yet have the data needed to effectively measure its performance in several key areas; (10) for example, one goal is to ensure that VBA is providing the best value for the taxpayer dollar; however, VBA currently is unable to calculate the full cost of providing benefits and services to veterans; (11) in addition, VBA officials and VA's Inspector General (IG) have raised concerns about the accuracy of data VBA is currently collecting; (12) for example, completed ongoing IG audits have identified data integrity problems with VBA's claims processing timeliness data; and (13) VBA is currently determining how best to address these concerns.