VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.






Be sure to get all four
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases
 

Download your
free copy of the
2008 VA benefits
handbook here...
 

Printer-Friendly Version

CONGRESSIONAL REPORT SAYS THOUSANDS OF VETERANS

MAY HAVE BEEN DENIED PAYMENTS -- Retirees with service-

connected disabilities may have been denied benefits or given

the wrong amount by DFAS and contractor, Lockheed Martin.

We knew this entire retro-payment program was fouled up from the start...we just didn't know how fouled up.

Story here... http://blog.cleveland.com/ope
ners/2008/07/thousands_of_veterans_may_have.html

Story below:

-------------------------

Thousands of veterans may have been denied payments, Kucinich report says

by Stephen Koff

Thousands of veterans with service-related disabilities may have been denied government disability or pension benefits or given the wrong amounts, the result of failure by a government contractor and poor oversight by the Pentagon, according to a just-released review by a congressional subcommittee headed by Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

Additionally, 8,763 veterans with disabilities died before the contractor, Lockheed Martin, and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service got around to issuing them payments, according to Kucinich's investigation.

The director of DFAS and a top Lockheed Martin executive are expected to appear Wednesday morning at a hearing called by Kucinich, chairman of the domestic policy subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Kucinich is expected to ask the Pentagon's inspector general, who also has been asked to appear, to look into the matter.

DFAS early this afternoon issued a statement declaring that "caring for our military retirees and veterans who have served this nation is one of the DFAS' top priorities." DFAS did not speak to the allegations in Kucinich's report, saying it is reviewing them. "We look forward to addressing the issues raised during tomorrow's hearing before the subcommittee," the statement said.

Lockheed Martin indicated it disagreed with Kucinich's report but will not yet comment beyond that.

"We're testifying tomorrow and will set the record straight," said Lockheed Martin spokesman Keith Mordoff.

The matter goes back to a decision by Congress in 2003 and 2004 to allow veterans to collect their disability pay as well as their military pensions. Previously, the amount of their disability pay was deducted from their pensions when they retired, so to prevent veterans from getting what government rules considered to be double payments. Decried as unfair by veterans groups, considering the sacrifices and hardships of disabled veterans, this denial was supposed to be reversed.

DFAS, in charge of military benefit payments, issued a no-bid contract to Lockheed Martin to get out back payments and clear up a backlog. DFAS supervised the work from its Cleveland offices, and it had previously contracted with Lockheed Martin to handle other benefits work.

But Lockheed Martin was understaffed, according to Kucinich's investigation, and missed deadlines. DFAS officials grew increasingly frustrated with the backlog, according to e-mail and memos found by Kucinich's committee staff.

Yet despite a desire to hold Lockheed Martin accountable, DFAS found that its contract rendered it powerless to penalize the company.

DFAS ultimately assigned its own employees in Cleveland to help Lockheed Martin clear up the backlog, according to Kucinich's report. But in doing so, DFAS abandoned its responsibility to monitor quality control and to audit the accuracy of its contractor, according to Kucinich.

So while it finally cleared up the backlog in June, it may have done so at the expense of accuracy. While there is anecdotal evidence that some veterans were improperly denied payments, there is no way to know without an audit how many of the 28,283 denials were properly or improperly made, Kucinich's office says.

There also is no way to know, without a thorough audit, how many payments were issued in the wrong amounts. There are anecdotal indications that wrong payments were made. There also is evidence that up to 61,050 payments were made after DFAS suspended quality control, according to Kucinich's staff. So how many of those payments were for too much money, or for too little?

Kucinich plans to ask the Pentagon inspector general to find out.

-------------------------

posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org

Don't forget to read all of today's VA News Flashes (click here)

Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage

email Larry

(go back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page)

       
Military Medical Malpractice 
Legal Network               

VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.