The Veterans Affairs Department’s inspector general has criticized the agency for disclosing inaccurate data in its publicly published staffing and vacancies numbers, Military.com reported Tuesday.
A new report issued by the VA’s inspector general says that the department’s publicly disclosed data does not provide accurate numbers of staffing shortages, according to the report.
Last year’s Mission Act, one of President Donald Trump’s high priority initiatives, mandated that the VA report the number of personnel vacancies and hirings on a public website. According to the VA OIG, the new requirement was intended to improve transparency for the department that has in recent years dealt with staffing struggles.
The OIG’s report found that VA only publishes vacancy data on its website for the current quarter and omits hiring and attrition over time, offering a limited snapshot of agency openings.
The report also found that vacancies are too broadly designated into “clinical” and “non-clinical” categories rather than into more defined fields such as “physicians” or “nurses.” Such definitions would help in identifying the types of professionals hired or that need recruitment, according to the IG report.
The OIG noted that while VA did comply in creating a website to view current vacancies, the site’s snapshot data could have an impact future agency recruiting and hiring.
OIG also noted that the website’s limitations, if “not corrected, may impact the transparency of the VA’s future staffing and vacancy reporting. VA should identify specific jobs or positions so that the public can better understand its staffing needs,” wrote Assistant Inspector General for General Audits and Evaluations Larry Reinkemeyer.