Efforts to Streamline Military Records, Services Face Scrutiny

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department, the two largest federal agencies, have failed to streamline veterans services and share records, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

Deputy directors of the two agencies are expected to testify Wednesday at a Senate Veterans Affairs' Committee hearing on improving information sharing through new technology across the agencies.

The GAO report, released last week, criticized the VA and the Defense Department for lacking specific plans, time frames and fiscal prudence in the effort to streamline veterans' services. They aren't alone among government agencies in lacking the fundamental "architecture" needed to improve information technology systems, but the VA's mission in particular is more visible than other government agencies and attracts more public scrutiny, said Valerie Melvin, the GAO director of information management and human capital.

The GAO criticism echoes years of complaints about the VA's complex, cumbersome and wasteful information technology systems. As recently as last year, the department's fiscal report acknowledged information technology safety as a "material weakness" facing the department.