Despite the Veterans Administration to paint this episode as a few "bad apples" destroying claims paperwork and evidence that is needed for veterans or their surviving spouses to obtain earned veterans benefits, the fact that this is now known to have occurred at 41 of the 57 Regional Offices across the nation and territories, show this is a system wide practice, that has been known for decades (they first fired people (lawyers) for this in 1987.
My friend Larry Scott broke this story October 13, 2008 and the VA has been in reaction mode ever since, even to the extent to refuse to allow him to participate in a conference call with new organizations on October 18, 2008
At 9:30am (EDT) on Thursday, October 23, 2008, the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) held a conference call with the major veterans' service organizations (VSOs). The purpose of the call was to update the VSOs on documents found in shredder bins at VA Regional Offices (VAROs) run by the Veterans' Benefits Administration (VBA) of the VA. Complete background here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/...
The conference call was moderated by Adm. Patrick W. Dunne, VA's Acting Under Secretary for Benefits. Most of the speaking was done by Mike Walcoff, the Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits.
VA Watchdog dot Org made a formal request to be included in that call. The VA denied the request.
Up to this time, the VA had said they had found 10 documents in shredder bins that were critical to a veterans' claim with the VBA. These documents came from just four VAROs.
Since that call the bottom has fallen out of the VA's claims.
The U.S. News became the first mainstream media to carry this story to the nation, since then newspapers across the nation have picked it up, even a few television news casts.
Amanda Ruggeri of US News
The issue first surfaced when audits by the VA's Office of Inspector General found records erroneously placed in shredder bins in the VA office in Detroit. In an ensuing nationwide review, the VA discovered that the Detroit office was only part of the problem. There are 474 documents that still cannot be identified as duplicated in veterans' claim files. Three offices have contributed more than half: St. Louis, with 94; Columbia, S.C., with 95; and Cleveland, with 53.
Particular individuals in the Columbia and St. Louis offices are being "looked at closely" in an ongoing investigation, VA Undersecretary for Benefits Patrick Dunne says. "They are not handling clients." Sources from veterans' organizations say they believe the two potential perpetrators to be under administrative leave. The Cleveland office also remains under investigation, and no particular worker has yet been identified as the source of the problem there.
VA's shredder bins typically are emptied once or twice a week, meaning that the 474 documents may represent only a few days' worth of errors. It will be nearly impossible to figure out how many documents had been incorrectly destroyed in the past—or if any have, Dunne says.
The approximately 50 different kinds of records found slated for destruction—including nine compensation claims, 18 notices of disagreement with a decision, and two death notices—could be key pieces of evidence for a veteran's application for benefits, says Jerry Manar, the national veterans service deputy director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. If a key piece of evidence has been shredded, "it can result in the denial of a claim," Manar says. More than 800,000 claims of various kinds are currently pending in the VA's backlog.
These papers that were slated for shredding were forms for appeals that if not placed in the veterans files within 60 days, allow the VA to close the file for missing the cut-off date to file an appeal. This in turn then ends up with veterans who already have medical issues, now to have financial issues which we all now lead to marriage problems, miss a few car payments, a house payment or two and now you have a divorce in your future. I think all veterans know other veterans that have fallen victim to this roller coaster, I know many of them.
On November 17th Congress will have a round table discussion with the Chairman Bob Filner and other Congressmen from the House VA Committee and Veterans Administration officials on how to move forward from this point and how to deal with veterans who beleive that records they submitted were destroyed over the years, many veterans are like me, we do not believe this was a once in a lifetime occurence, the VA Regional Offices have been doing this for years, they just happened to get caught on this when the VA Office of Inspector general sent inspection teams in and found these papers in the shredding rooms, so that makes people like me query how many documents were destroyed in previous days and years, how many veterans and their families have been deprived of their earned benefits due to destruction of valuable documentation, some of which can not be duplicated, expensive Independent Medical Opinions (some of these cost veterans anywhere from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars) I tell everyone to never send the original documents, make certified copies and send them, always keep copies of every document sent to the VA just because of lost documents. This is not a new thing for veterans that have been dealing with the VA for any amount of time.
In yesterdays The State Chuck Crumbo wrote another story about the VA shredding mess
The shredder incident could have widespread impact in South Carolina, home of more than 413,000 former members of the military services.
One of those veterans wondered just how many records have been wrongly destroyed before the shredding incident came to light.
"How long has this been going on, and how many veterans and their families have been deprived of benefits they have earned?" said Army veteran Mike Bailey of Springdale.
The House Veterans Affairs Committee, which includes Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., plans to summon VA leaders to Capitol Hill in mid-November to explain the shredder incidents, an aide said. Representatives of veterans’ service organizations also are expected to join in the discussion.
I like his source for veterans feelings (rofl) sounds a lot like me.
I need the help of my fellow Kossacks, I need you to write your own congress men and women and your Senators and tell them that this is not acceptable and their must be ACCOUNTABILITY, that this can not be swept under the rug, this nations veterans and their families deserve better and we citizens demand better handling of our veterans.
I ask you also to send an e mail to Congressman Bob Filner at this address, it is the person who handles veterans issues for Congressman Filner, let him know how you feel
sharon.schultze@mail.house.gov
Our nations veterans deserve better than this, the VA exists for one reason only to "care for our nations veterans" there is no other purpose.
Please take a few minutes to help us help them Thank you please recommend the diary so all Kossacks will be able to read this, this is that big of a deal.
Digg it here please