Veterans' disability claims have reportedly ended up in shred bins, in the latest embarrassing episode for the Veterans Affairs Department. Officials from the VA's Inspector General's Office confirmed they found key pieces of paperwork from veterans' claims files "inappropriately placed in shred bins" at the department's Los Angeles Regional Office, reports News Military.
Rep. Julia Brownley, and Rep. Raul Ruiz from Calif., are pressing VA officials for answers about how key pieces of paperwork from veterans' disability claims files ended up in shredding bins. "Such misconduct could have a devastating impact on the affected veterans and their families, resulting in the loss of critical information and adversely affecting the adjudication of veteran claims," the two lawmakers wrote in a letter to VA Secretary Bob McDonald. "Simply put, this is unacceptable," reports Military Times.
Though full details of the findings won't be released for several more weeks, and the exact number of cases affected has not yet been released by the VA Inspector General's Office, VA officials said only 10 files were misplaced in the bins, and the items would have been subject to additional review before being destroyed. They downplayed the problem as a one-time mistake from a small number of workers, not "malicious intent," reports Navy Times.
Loss of paperwork has long been a problem in the VA claims and medical processes, with veterans' advocates recommending that individuals keep multiple copies of all critical paperwork because of commonplace loss within agency offices.
Seven years ago, after similar allegations of improper document shredding hit the department, the Inspector General recommended a host of new controls to ensure critical paperwork was not being lost in the system.
It has not yet been ascertained as to how many veterans may have been affected by the latest problem. The regional office handles claims for more than 700,000 veterans in California.
VA leaders in recent years have placed extra emphasis on digitizing those records, in part to prevent that kind of loss.
