VA Claims Being Shredded Nothing New To Veterans

This is what happened in Florida

The policy comes as the VA continues to investigate improper shredding at a St. Petersburg veterans benefits office and 56 other regional offices in nearly every state.

The policy calls for the appointment of a records control team in Washington, D.C., to oversee the handling of documents. It also would lead to the hiring of records officers in each benefits office to do the same on a local level.

And before shredding any document, two VA employees, including a supervisor, would have to sign off, according to a draft of the policy obtained by the St. Petersburg Times on Friday. The policy comes after the discovery last month of nearly 500 veterans' claims documents improperly set aside for shredding in 41 VA benefits offices.

The documents, which had no duplicates in VA files, could have been crucial in deciding if an individual veteran received a pension or disability payment.

That total includes 13 documents found in shredding bins in the VA's busiest benefits office at Bay Pines in St. Petersburg, where the agency's inspector general is still conducting an audit.

Bay Pines is the home benefits office for Florida's 1.8-million veterans and the 330,000 who live in the Tampa Bay area.

When did it happen?
VA hopes new shredding guidelines protect claims seekers, By William R. Levesque, Times staff writer, In print: Saturday, November 1, 2008

Yes, you read that date right. Back then there was a lot of "outrage" that didn't change a damn thing. Looks like Congress needs history lesson on Veterans' Claims again.

Department of Veterans Affairs
INTERIM REPORT
Review of Alleged Shredding of Claims-Related Evidence at the VA Regional Office Los Angeles, California

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On January 20, 2015, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) received an anonymous allegation that staff at the Los Angeles VA Regional Office (VARO) were shredding mail related to veterans’ disability compensation claims. The complainant also alleged that supervisors were instructing staff to shred these documents. In February 2015, we conducted an unannounced inspection at the Los Angeles VARO to assess the merits of the allegation.

We substantiated that the Los Angeles VARO staff was not following Veterans Benefits Administration’s (VBA) January 2011 policy on management of veterans’ and other Governmental paper records. 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.

Eight of the nine documents had the potential to affect veterans’ benefits and one had no effect on the veteran’s benefits. Since VARO staff placed these nine claims-related documents in shred bins for non-claims related documents, these nine documents bypassed the first VBA control requiring supervisory review of claims-related documents before shredding. 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. If VARO 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.

In response to an OIG report on inappropriate shredding of veterans’ claims in November 2008, VBA created the permanent position of a Records Management Officer (RMO) to ensure the appropriate management and safeguarding of veterans’ records, to include providing oversight of the shredding of documents. The RMO serves as the VARO’s final control to prevent shredding of claims-related documents.

We found that there was no RMO at the Los Angeles VARO from August 2014 until our inspection in February 2015. The RMO was promoted to another position in August 2014, and the Assistant Director determined that it was not necessary to fill the RMO position. We found that Support Services Division (SSD) staff that took over the duties of the RMO lacked training regarding maintaining, reviewing, protecting, and appropriately destroying veterans’ and other Governmental paper records. The Assistant Director assumed that the RMO had provided SSD staff with training but did not ensure this had occurred. SSD staff stated they would only complete a “cursory review” as they dumped all collected documents and material in shred bins for contractor shredding. When asked to define “cursory review”, SSD staff stated they would observe documents as they dumped the documents into the bin destined for contractor shredding.
read the whole report here

VA Still Shredding Claims After All These Years?

Veterans claims: Shredding alleged
Local congressman joins colleague in sending letter to Veterans Affairs secretary, inspector general report expected in August.
Press Enterprise
David Downey Staff Writer
July 18, 2015

An Inland congressman is raising concerns about a report from “a highly credible source” that he said indicates veterans’ claims documents were destroyed inappropriately at a Los Angeles regional claims center.

Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, teamed up with Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Westlake Village, on a letter to Veterans Administration Secretary Robert McDonald. They called on the secretary to halt the shredding of documents and send a team to Los Angeles to evaluate the situation there. The letter says documents were wrongly placed in shred bins.

Brownley said in a news release she had been informed that the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General substantiated an allegation that paperwork was shredded. She said the inspector general is looking into the matter and expected to issue a report in August.
read more here



Gee that sounds really bad. That is unless you remember how far back all of this has been going on. As with most things, members of Congress have made it a habit to forget they've been down this road before and left massive potholes for veterans to fall into. They really want us to forget that they have jurisdiction over the VA and it was their job to fix it.
Key lawmaker says he’s losing faith in VA October 2008 reported on Army Times

Filner, a frequent critic of VA, cited two examples: the department’s abandoned plans to use a private contractor to help launch the new GI Bill benefits program next year, and VA’s order Thursday to its 57 regional offices to stop shredding documents after veterans’ claims materials were found in piles of paper waiting to be destroyed.

Oh but that isn't all there was. Congress needs history lesson on Veterans' Claims

Congress needs history lesson on Veterans' Claims

Congress needs history lesson on Veterans' Claims
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 4, 2014

We told veterans that compensation from the VA for their wounds due to their service, was something they already paid for the day they joined prepared to risk their lives. What we didn't tell them was that Congress wouldn't see any of it as their responsibility. Their duty to make sure that all our veterans were honored and respected more than twice a year. That their service was worth all this nation could do for them in return.

Members of congress think they are pulling the wool over our eyes pretending all the issues with the VA are new. After all, they have been able to do just that for years. They love to forget how long all of this has been going on because they would have to actually be held accountable if the American public had been aware. So here is a little history lesson for them. Ok, not for them but for us because of them.

NPR reported on this in January of 2008, yes you read that right, 2008.

Army officials in upstate New York instructed representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs not to help disabled soldiers at Fort Drum Army base with their military disability paperwork last year. That paperwork can be crucial because it helps determine whether soldiers will get annual disability payments and health care after they're discharged.

How do I know this? Because it was posted on Wounded Times as well as over 21,000 other articles. Wounded Times remembers what was reported and the archive does not forget.

After NPR ran the story, they did a followup with this,

Morning Edition, February 7, 2008 · A document from the Department of Veterans Affairs contradicts an assertion made by the Army surgeon general that his office did not tell VA officials to stop helping injured soldiers with their military disability paperwork at a New York Army post.

The paperwork can help determine health care and disability benefits for wounded soldiers.

Last week, NPR first described a meeting last March between an Army team from Washington and VA officials at Fort Drum Army base in upstate New York. NPR reported that Army representatives told the VA not to review the narrative summaries of soldiers' injuries, and that the VA complied with the Army's request.

The day the NPR story aired, Army Surgeon General Eric B. Schoomaker denied parts of the report. Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), who represents the Fort Drum area, told North Country Public Radio, that "The Surgeon General of the Army told me very flatly that it was not the Army that told the VA to stop this help."

Now, NPR has obtained a four-page VA document that contradicts the surgeon general's statement to McHugh. It was written by one of the VA officials at Fort Drum on March 31, the day after the meeting. The document says Col. Becky Baker of the Army Surgeon General's office told the VA to discontinue counseling soldiers on the appropriateness of Defense Department ratings because "there exists a conflict of interest."

On February 13, this came out causing my jaw to drop. "VA claim backlog at 816,211 but IT cut back? WTF"

Vets' groups urge IT budget boost for benefits processing
By Bob Brewin bbrewin@govexec.com
February 13, 2008

Veterans' services organizations have urged Congress to provide a sharp increase in the information technology budget of the agency that handles their compensation and pension claims. The fiscal 2009 IT budget request for the Veterans Benefits Administration is about 18 percent less than the fiscal 2008 proposal. The overall IT budget for the Veterans Affairs Department, VBA's parent agency, jumped 18 percent in President Bush's latest request.

VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Baker said VBA must have the funds necessary to upgrade its IT infrastructure to handle the backlog and a growing caseload. Anything short of an increase is "a recipe for failure," he added.

Carl Blake, national legislative director for the Paralyzed Veterans of America, said VBA needed $121 million in its fiscal 2009 budget for its information technology. According to VA budget documents, VBA requested an IT budget of $109.6 million for its compensation and benefits programs, down $23.8 million from $133.4 million in 2008. VA requested an overall 2009 IT budget of $2.53 billion in 2009, up from $2.15 billion in fiscal 2008, with the largest portion earmarked for the Veterans Health Administration.

By October Bob Filner, Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee was upset over the report that claims were being shredded. "VA’s order Thursday to its 57 regional offices to stop shredding documents after veterans’ claims materials were found in piles of paper waiting to be destroyed." A month later there were new rules to prevent a repeat." And before shredding any document, two VA employees, including a supervisor, would have to sign off, according to a draft of the policy obtained by the St. Petersburg Times on Friday. The policy comes after the discovery last month of nearly 500 veterans' claims documents improperly set aside for shredding in 41 VA benefits offices."

As bad as all that is, Congress needs to be reminded of this

Veterans Still Burned Over 35 Year Old Fire
For more than 30 years many a veteran has been faced with the chilling reality of discovering that their military service records had gone up in smoke in a St. Louis fire.

Since that time countless numbers of veterans have been fired up by responses to inquiries and benefits applications that include the now infamous "Your records were burned…" statement.

To this day among many veterans the standard wisecrack upon being told that a service or VA document of theirs has been misplaced or is temporarily unavailable is- "Must have had another fire in St. Louis." More skeptical vets feel that the fire offered a convenient opportunity for covering up long standing mismanagement of important records and offered the system yet another means of dodging the benefits bullet.

What about the fire? And what was burned? The only answer is the official one and official answers tend to serve only as confirmation to the believers and fuel for fire for the skeptics. Nonetheless, here it is:

"On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records (NPRC-MPR) in St. Louis destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files."The National Archives

Just as important an issue is- Which records went up in smoke? Once again, the official word from The National Archives:
"Army records: Personnel discharged November 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960. 80% estimated loss.Air Force records: Personnel discharged, September 25, 1947, to January 1, 1964 (with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.). 75% estimated loss."

VA has a history of losing papers

While it is not a new problem, it is a larger one than ever before. There is a saying among veterans trying to have claims approved. "It was lost in translation." In their case, they are talking about how the VA requires veterans to have their papers and claims all in within a certain timeframe, but the translation on the VA end is "whenever" they process it. We've heard stories of lost files for years.

VA has a history of losing papers
Tampabay.com - St. Petersburg,FL,USA
By William R. Levesque, Times staff writer
Sunday, November 30, 2008

Air Force veteran David Chini has lost track of all the times the Department of Veterans Affairs lost records he sent to it.

Registered mail? A VA worker signed, and the paperwork vanished. By fax? Chini, 69, of St. Petersburg said the VA claimed it never arrived. Regular mail? Don't even ask.

And if something doesn't arrive, the agency threatens to discontinue his medical benefits because Chini isn't sending the papers it needs.

"It's just totally demoralizing," he said.

Recent revelations that workers in 41 of 57 VA regional benefits offices, including St. Petersburg, improperly set aside hundreds of claims records for shredding came as no surprise to veterans.

The VA, critics say, has long operated in a veritable culture of lost paper and was losing records many years before this latest scandal. Lost paperwork sometimes leads to delayed, denied or abandoned claims for medical or financial assistance.

And it leaves some questioning if workers lose it deliberately to ease workloads. At least two VA employees outside Florida are being investigated for just that.

"I remain angry that a culture of dishonesty has led to an increased mistrust of the VA within the veteran community," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

The VA notes it is the most paper-intensive federal bureaucracy, sifting through 162-million pages of claims documents a year.

And while the VA hopes to have largely paperless claims filing by 2012, the size of the agency makes computerization a challenge.
click link for more

The usual explanation for lost files when it comes to Vietnam veterans is that the papers were all lost in the fire in St. Louis. Read about it here.

Veterans Still Burned Over 35 Year Old Fire
For more than 30 years many a veteran has been faced with the chilling reality of discovering that their military service records had gone up in smoke in a St. Louis fire.
Since that time countless numbers of veterans have been fired up by responses to inquiries and benefits applications that include the now infamous "Your records were burned…" statement.
To this day among many veterans the standard wisecrack upon being told that a service or VA document of theirs has been misplaced or is temporarily unavailable is- "Must have had another fire in St. Louis." More skeptical vets feel that the fire offered a convenient opportunity for covering up long standing mismanagement of important records and offered the system yet another means of dodging the benefits bullet.
What about the fire? And what was burned? The only answer is the official one and official answers tend to serve only as confirmation to the believers and fuel for fire for the skeptics. Nonetheless, here it is:
"On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records (NPRC-MPR) in St. Louis destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files."The National Archives
Just as important an issue is- Which records went up in smoke? Once again, the official word from The National Archives:
"Army records: Personnel discharged November 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960. 80% estimated loss.Air Force records: Personnel discharged, September 25, 1947, to January 1, 1964 (with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.). 75% estimated loss."
click link above for more

The problem with this is they don't seem to talk very much about all the unit records that were not destroyed. Most of the bases kept the same files because the DOD does everything in multiple copies. It they really wanted to find the files they needed, they could but that would take too much time and too much manpower to do it. Wouldn't it be worth it to the veterans if they did find the copies available to speed up some of these claims? Wouldn't it be a better idea for the VA to hire enough workers so that these claims are not trapped with all the new ones? After all, we're not just talking about claims. We're talking about veterans and their families waiting to have their claims honored.

Congressman Filner, do VA hearing right or not at all!

Congressman Filner, the veterans in this country need this to be done right. Otherwise it is just paying more lip service instead of taking care of them. Have you ever considered what these veterans are going thru when they do their duty, serve their country, get wounded and then have to fight the government after? Have you ever considered what this does to them and their families as they wait, and wait, and wait? They didn't make the government wait until they got around to going to combat and risking their lives so why is the government under the impression they are entitled to make the veterans wait to have their claims processed and approved so their wounds are treated and their families are provided for? Can they tell a mortgage company to wait? Can they tell a landlord to wait? If they cannot work they don't have an income!

If you think this is just about Afghanistan and Iraq veterans you better think again. Too many Vietnam veterans are still waiting to have their claims approved and have fought the government in order to finally have justice. How many do you need to sit in front of you giving sworn testimony before you understand that? This is just the latest slap in the face to veterans when they found out claims were being shredded and filing dates changed to not make it look that bad. We have to get this right and get it right now. Our veterans should not have to wait to be taken care of! kc

Vets committee reneges on VA hearings
Nov 14, 2008
November 14, 2008
Vets committee reneges on VA hearings
The chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs won't hold hearings as promised on a shredding controversy at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Instead of a formal hearing, the committee chairman will hold a two-hour "round table" discussion on Wednesday in Washington without sworn witnesses and no assurance the VA will even participate.

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who chairs the committee, could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday and no explanation about the change was provided by committee staff.
click link for more

New York Chief of Veteran's Affairs suspended after investigation

Nov. 13: VA Employees Suspended in Widening Shredder Scandal
Scott Waldman
Times Union

Nov 13, 2008

November 13, 2008 - A high-ranking U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs administrator from Guilderland has been placed on paid leave in the wake of an investigation into his office.

Joseph Collorafi was suspended last month as chief of veterans affairs at the New York City regional VA office, said Keith Thompson, acting director of the office.

The investigation revealed that someone in the regional office intentionally entered claim documents from veterans with incorrect dates — called "backdating" — into an internal database, VA spokeswoman Alison Aikele said Wednesday.

"They would make it look like they were processing claims faster than they really were," said Aikele, who works in Washington, D.C. Changing the dates made it appear that the management was not "severely underperforming," according to Aikele.

She said the leadership of the office in Manhattan was replaced and the individuals who left would not be returning. She maintained that no veterans were affected by the backdating.

In recent weeks, 41 of 57 regional VA offices across the country have come under scrutiny over the possible shredding of supporting evidence in claims filed by veterans. Next week, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, U.S. Rep. Bob Filner of California, will hold a hearing on the destruction of the records.
go here for more
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/11628

VA hopes new shredding guidelines protect claims seekers

VA hopes new shredding guidelines protect claims seekers
By William R. Levesque, Times staff writer
In print: Saturday, November 1, 2008
The Department of Veterans Affairs is finalizing a sweeping new records policy to prevent the destruction of claims documents in benefits offices around the nation.

The policy comes as the VA continues to investigate improper shredding at a St. Petersburg veterans benefits office and 56 other regional offices in nearly every state.

The policy calls for the appointment of a records control team in Washington, D.C., to oversee the handling of documents. It also would lead to the hiring of records officers in each benefits office to do the same on a local level.

And before shredding any document, two VA employees, including a supervisor, would have to sign off, according to a draft of the policy obtained by the St. Petersburg Times on Friday.
The policy comes after the discovery last month of nearly 500 veterans' claims documents improperly set aside for shredding in 41 VA benefits offices.

The documents, which had no duplicates in VA files, could have been crucial in deciding if an individual veteran received a pension or disability payment.

That total includes 13 documents found in shredding bins in the VA's busiest benefits office at Bay Pines in St. Petersburg, where the agency's inspector general is still conducting an audit.

Bay Pines is the home benefits office for Florida's 1.8-million veterans and the 330,000 who live in the Tampa Bay area.

go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/veterans/article884990.ece

VA Shredder, national scandal, national disgrace

Larry Scott, of VA Watchdog, was outraged the media had not reported on this story and he is not alone. Many of us, advocates working very hard to make sure that veterans feel appreciated and are really taken care of, have been faced with this startling fact that no matter what we do, no matter how hard we work, no matter what the veterans who served this country were promised, it has now been wasted.

When you think of how reports like this make veterans feel, you are only beginning to understand what far reaching catastrophic consequences come with this. Imagine if you will being a veteran with your service still fresh in your mind. You know you cannot work because you were sent to risk your life in combat. You know your family is suffering financially and the added stress on your relationship is killing you. First you are told you would have to wait until your claim makes it through the "process" and "these things take time" only to find out that while you were suffering, waiting for your claim to finally be approved, borrowing money so that you and your family do not go homeless or hungry, you find out that the VA has piles waiting to be shredded and your claim could be in it. How would you feel?

Well that is exactly what is happening to men and women across this nation and all the yellow ribbons, hand shakes and welcome home speeches won't do a damn bit of good for any of them. Where is the outrage? Where is the press coverage on CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC? Where is the coverage on the local news stations? There are many reports in the print media but not enough so that the general public is aware of how bad this is.

We really need to wonder why the major stations are finding it just not news worthy enough to report on this when we have a nation election along with many state elections and the people we send to Washington will be responsible for all of this all over again. Is it that the troops and our veterans just don't matter enough? Is it that while so many young men and women are serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Nationals Guards and Reservists, they are also joining the growing ranks of veterans who expected their service to be honored when it really matters to them but Sarah Palin's wardrobe is more "news worthy" and gets them more viewers?

It's not just the major TV and cable stations I have a problem with. It's the radio ones as well. It's time for us to stand up for the veterans and demand they report on what is going on. We are paying attention but most of America is focused on their own problems and they need to be made aware of all of this so they can do something about it. Read the reports from VA Watchdog and know how bad this all is then wonder how you'd feel if it happened to your own family. Wouldn't you want someone like you to fight? This is not only a scandal but it's a disgrace!



Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

VA: NEARLY 500 CRITICAL DOCUMENTS FOUND IN SHREDDER BINS

ALL VA SHREDDER SCANDAL ARTICLES HERE...

UPDATE: NEW VA FIGURES SHOW NATIONWIDE PROBLEM WITH SHREDDING CRITICAL DOCUMENTS (10-23-08)VA finds hundreds of documents critical to veterans' claims in shredder bins across the country.AND --

FILNER COMPARES VA TO "KEYSTONE COPS," TO HOLD HEARING ON SHREDDING IN NOVEMBER (10-24-08)

DAV "OUTRAGED" BY VA SHREDDER SCANDAL (10-24-08)

HISTORY OF DECEPTION: VA ATTORNEYS CONVICTED OF DESTROYING DOCUMENTS (10-22-08)

FEDERAL JUDGE FINES VA FOR SHREDDING CRITICAL DOCUMENTS ... IN 1987 (10-20-08)

Key lawmaker says he’s losing faith in VA

Key lawmaker says he’s losing faith in VA

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Oct 17, 2008 12:44:19 EDT

The chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee says he completely understands why many veterans have lost confidence in the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“I am sure there are good people working there who are trying very hard and have the best of intentions, but they are bunglers,” said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif. “You lose confidence in these people by watching them.”

Filner, a frequent critic of VA, cited two examples: the department’s abandoned plans to use a private contractor to help launch the new GI Bill benefits program next year, and VA’s order Thursday to its 57 regional offices to stop shredding documents after veterans’ claims materials were found in piles of paper waiting to be destroyed.

“This is an insult to veterans,” Filner said.
click post title for more