Department of Veterans Affairs
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In an Oct. 9 letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinskei, Sen. Susan Collins requested the agency disclose whether employees responsible for planning the two conferences held in Orlando, Fla., last summer, also worked on other conferences. In addition, Collins said she wants to know how much conference planners earned in bonuses and other awards for their work.
October 10, 2012 -
Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the ranking member of the Senate committee, called on VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to fire his chief of staff, John Gingrich after an inspector general report said he failed to ask the right questions before approving two training conferences. The conferences costs $6.1 million, with as much as $762,000 in questionable spending.
October 09, 2012 -
Agencies are missing out on billions of dollars in savings by not using strategic-sourcing contracts, particularly when buying services, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The report finds the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Energy spent less than 5 percent of their combined acquisition budgets through strategic sourcing and saved less than $2 billion.
October 04, 2012 -
Federal News Radio Executive Editor Jason Miller and Federal Times Senior Writers Stephen Losey and Sean Reilly join host Mike Causey to talk about phased retirements, sequestration and more. October 3, 2012
October 03, 2012 -
Procurement will start with management of 5,000 mobile devices, plus app stores for consumers inside and outside of VA. The agency awarded a three-year, $9.3 million deal to Longview International Technology Solutions to build and manage the technology in the cloud.
October 03, 2012 -
Two Veterans Affairs Department training conferences held last summer in Orlando, Fla., contained as much as $762,000 in wasteful spending and were plagued by poor planning and oversight, according to an inspector general report released Monday.
October 01, 2012 -
John Sepulveda, the chief human capital officer at the Veterans Affairs Department, resigned Sunday. The agency's inspector general is expected to release a final report today on two human resources conferences last year that cost the department $5 million.
October 01, 2012 -
The agencies soon will issue solicitations that will take them one step closer to deploying integrated electronic health records for service members, veterans and their families. The departments have been working on the project for years but have only recently begun to demonstrate tangible progress.
September 18, 2012 -
Veterans Affairs PHR effort has already gone far beyond VA. After reaching 1 million users, originators of the project have set their sights on 100 million.
September 12, 2012 -
Federal News Radio's Jason Miller will talk about a recent confrontation between a GSA official and an agent in the Inspector General's office. Steve Losey and Andy Medici from the Federal Times will discuss the pay debate and other issues affecing federal workers. September 5, 2012
September 05, 2012 -
Executive order calls for vets in emotional distress to be seen by a professional within 24 hours. It also enlists HHS, Education, DoD and VA in interagency partnerships to find treatments for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress.
September 04, 2012 -
DoD and VA have both committed to moving from their legacy electronic health record systems to a joint, integrated system by 2017. But there are challenges: an aggressive timeline and an acquisition culture that's not been suited to agility in the past.
August 31, 2012 -
The Republican Party platform criticized President Barack Obama for not doing enough to avert automatic budget cuts set to hit the Defense Department in January. The plan, which was unveiled Tuesday, also called for greater public-private collaboration on cybersecurity and recommended an overhaul of the Veterans Affairs Department.
August 29, 2012 -
The Veterans Affairs Department wants a contractor to review the agency's conference planning and conference acquisition policies, according to a request for information. The solicitation comes weeks after revelations that VA had spent $5 million two conferences last year.
August 28, 2012 -
On this week's Capital Impact show, Bloomberg Government analysts will discuss growth potential at the Veterans Administration, the Affordable Care Act's impact on drug companies, and a preview of the 2012 Democratic and Republican conventions. August 23, 2012
August 23, 2012