Department of Veterans Affairs
-
A 15-minute training video that cost $52,000 to make joins the examples of excessive spending at two Veterans Affairs' conferences last year with a total pricetag of $5 million.
August 23, 2012 -
Uncle Sam employs a larger percentage of veterans than any big company in the nation...we know it's policy and it's the right thing to do. But is it a good idea? Senior Correspondent Mike Causey reports that a been-there-done-that type says "Roger that..."
August 21, 2012 -
Spa treatments, concert tickets and helicopter and stretch limo rides — the initial details in a Veterans Affairs' Office of the Inspector General investigation could overshadow the GSA conference spending scandal.
August 20, 2012 -
Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, talks about the challenges facing veterans when they return home. August 17, 2012(Encore presentation September 7 & 14, 2012)
August 17, 2012 -
Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) believes a VA contracting program that requires service-disabled vets control 100 percent of their company's decision-making to qualify is too onerous. And he wants to ease the requirements.
August 07, 2012 -
HUD is one of five agencies piloting a performance management system, called GEAR. The new approach aims to eliminate a disconnect between organizational goals and employee performance.
July 24, 2012 -
A new report details mixed progress on a law requiring agencies to write using plain language when dealing with the public. The Center for Plain Language awarded the Agriculture Department an "A" for its efforts, the highest score of 12 large agencies and departments it surveyed. The Veterans Affairs Department, however, earned an "F" for its mostly incomplete progress.
July 20, 2012 -
The Veterans Affairs Department is giving $100 million in grants to help community organizations support at-risk veterans so they have stable housing. Leaders of the homeless veteran initiative at the VA and Department of Housing and Urban Development are among the Service to America Medal finalists for their work on the problem.
July 17, 2012 -
Mary Santiago, director of VA's Veteran Employment Services Office, was nominated for her work with the VA for Vets program.
July 16, 2012 -
The agency will organize incoming claims into one of three categories based on the difficulty in solving them as part of an effort to increase efficiency. The Veterans Benefits Administration also is seeking other ways to reduce the number of backlogged cases such as new training for employees, said VA's Allison Hickey, the undersecretary for benefits.
July 11, 2012 -
After protesters marched to the White House, VA's Human Resources Management Office issued a letter calling for a "temporary stand down on changes to lower grade actions."
July 04, 2012 -
SBA released data today that showed the amount of total dollars going to small firms is down as are the overall percentage of contracts small businesses won in 2011. Agencies made only one governmentwide goal for SDBs last year.
July 03, 2012 -
Tom Johnson, publisher of Set-Aside Alert talks about the challenges facing contractors. July 2, 2012(Encore presentation August 20, 2012)
July 02, 2012 -
The development of a shared records system between the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs is making progress thanks to several pilots. VA-DoD is taking the lessons learned from the tests and applying them to future pilots.
July 02, 2012 -
The Veterans Affairs Department wants to change the frequency of reverifying veteran-owned businesses from once a year to once every two years, according to an interim final rule published in the Federal Register.
June 28, 2012