Report: Data Manipulation Confirmed At Little Rock VA

KATV’s Elicia Dover reports:

Data manipulation has been discovered at the Veterans Affairs Little Rock Regional Office, according to a report.

One claim that was 20 years old, was changed to appear it was only 14 days old.

The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs released a report Thursday saying their office had substantiated an anonymous allegation that the staff at the VARO in Little Rock manipulated data on veterans’ benefit claims.

“The complainant alleged that adjusting the dates of claims was done to give the appearance that VBA was making more progress than it actually had in eliminating its backlog of disability claims,” the report stated.

According the report, the staff manipulated data even after the VA scandal broke in early 2014.

The report found the staff did so in compliance with the VBA Fast Letter, known as FL 13-10, in effect at that time. However, the letter was suspended on June 27, 2014, by the Under Secretary for Benefits after the Office of Inspector General determined staff were misapplying the guidance at another VARO.

“However, as outlined in this report, we concluded that VBA did not take action to terminate FL 13-10 until January 22, 2015,” the report stated.

The Office of Inspector General reviewed 48 cases, most of which were rating-related and involved if a veteran would get disability or not. According to the report, an average of 1 year and 8 months elapsed between the date the VA received the claim, until the staff discovered the claim.

“Among the 43 rating-related claims, 1 claim was 20 years old, but the date of claim had been adjusted to make the claim appear 14 days old,” the report stated.

Channel 7 News has reached out to the Little Rock VA Regional Office for comment, but has not heard back.

Access the full Inspector General report or leave comments at this link.