VA caught sending veterans' mail to the shredder

By Pete Kasperowicz 

The government watchdog for the Department of Veterans Affairs reported Monday that it was able to substantiate claims that the VA's Los Angeles office was sending mail from veterans to the shredder.
The VA's Office of Inspector General said it launched an "unannounced inspection" of the Los Angeles office after hearing allegations that the VA staff there was shredding mail related to veterans' disability compensation claims. Though the OIG said it can't measure how often this might have happened, it did say it found some examples of mail lined up for the shredder that instead should have been opened and read.

"Although we cannot quantify or identify claims-related documents that the VARO may have shredded prior to our review, we found nine claims-related documents that VARO staff incorrectly placed in personal shred bins for non-claims related documents," the OIG reported. "Eight of the nine documents had the potential to affect veterans' benefits and one had no effect on the veteran's benefits."
The OIG said the placement of these letters in "shred bins" means that they were able to bypass the first level of control, which requires letters to be reviewed before they are shredded.

"Of the nine claims-related documents, five did not have required initials of both the employee and supervisor and the remaining four had only the employee's initials," the report said. "If ... staff and their supervisors followed VBA policy, these nine claims-related documents would not have been placed in personal shred bins that are designated for non-claims related documents."
The report said if the OIG had not stepped in, "it is likely that. ... staff would have inappropriately destroyed the nine claims-related documents we found."
It added that a records management officer was supposed to be on staff in Los Angeles to prevent this from happening, but said there was no one in that position from August 2014 until February 2015. The original records officer was promoted, and the office's assistant director "determined that it was not necessary to fill the ... position."

Officials who tried to take over that role "lacked training regarding maintaining, reviewing, protecting and appropriately destroying veterans' and other governmental paper records," the report said.
The OIG said the Los Angeles office couldn't provide any documentation at all on what documents it had shredded over the past two years.

The watchdog recommended that the Los Angeles office should "implement a plan and assess the effectiveness of training" when it comes to handling, processing and destroying these records.
"The arbitrary destruction of mail by officials at the Los Angeles VA is a stark reminder of the need for true reform of the Veterans Administration," said Concerned Veterans for America CEO Pete Hegseth. "Rather than make sure each veteran's voice was heard, and each claim was handled professionally, VA officials instead effectively silenced those who fought for our freedom and security, casually sending their letters to the shredder."