Several leading Republicans on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee expressed strong reservations about the Veterans Affairs Department’s continued pursuit of major acquisitions over concerns about its management of several multi-billion dollar modernization projects.
During a joint hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers on the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on Technology Modernization criticized the VA over its management of major technology programs, saying that the agency lacks consistent oversight and accountability procedures needed to ensure the success of its acquisitions.
Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., ranking member of the Technology Modernization Subcommittee, suggested the establishment of a board to oversee the approval of VA’s contractor systems—in tandem with the committee and Congress—that would include the reporting of associated costs, schedules and performance information.
“The VA has to demonstrate better management before it can start any new programs, and we cannot entrust it with any more taxpayer money to chase after these failed programs,” Rosendale said. “It’s our responsibility to make sure the mistakes of the past are not repeated.”
Rosendale also cited the Government Accountability Office’s August report on the VA’s acquisition program management framework, which is designed to manage the department’s purchases of goods and services. While the framework was implemented in 2017, it remains voluntary and has not been used to manage VA’s major acquisitions. GAO previously added VA’s acquisition management to its high-risk list—or HRL—in 2019, which catalogs federal programs and operations that are “vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement, or need transformation.”
Michael Parrish—the chief acquisition officer and principal executive director of VA’s Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Construction—told the committee the VA is in the process of implementing a new binding and enforceable acquisition lifecycle framework, known as ALF, that “will serve as an effective tool to manage and oversee VA acquisitions” once it is implemented.
Parrish said the VA has also made significant progress in addressing GAO’s concerns with the agency’s acquisition management process since it was added to the HRL. Of the 51 HRL-related recommendations offered by GAO, Parrish said 37 of the recommendations have been closed and that the VA is in the process of addressing the remaining 14 open recommendations.
As Parrish noted in his opening remarks, however, GAO has recommended that the VA take additional steps to shore up the ALF before it is adopted.
“VA still faces many of the same challenges that hindered the success of the prior framework,” Shelby Oakley, GAO’s director of contracting and national security acquisitions, told the committee. “For example, VA can’t readily identify programs subject to varying levels of framework oversight, doesn’t know if it has the workforce with the skills necessary to implement the various aspects of the framework—especially at the program level—and has no current strategy to actually enforce its use.”
Rep. Tracey Mann, R-Kan., ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, expressed support for the concept of the ALF, but said that “until this framework is issued, and the binding and enforcement mechanisms are in place, VA should not begin any other major acquisitions.”
“Unfortunately, four major projects with a total cost of over $24 billion are already underway,” Mann said, adding that “it’s not too late to make sure that new projects are well-planned.”
The VA’s current supply chain management system—the Defense Medical Logistics Standard Support, or DMLSS—was adopted from the Department of Defense in 2019 to replace VA’s legacy systems, but has faced implementation issues of its own after it was launched as a pilot project…
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