Activities of the Veterans Administration's Office of the Inspector General

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Office of Inspector General's (OIG): (1) use of its current staff; (2) planned use of 40 additional staff members; and (3) plans to request further staff increases. GAO found that: (1) OIG provided widespread coverage of VA operations through its various audits and investigations; (2) OIG planned to use the authorized 40 additional staff members to provide more in-depth coverage of VA operations; (3) the additional 40 staff members would increase the OIG staffing level to 417, about the level it requested in fiscal year (FY) 1988 and FY 1989; (4) based on the results of a January 1989 work-load assessment, the Acting Inspector General submitted a budget request to VA for 80 additional staff members in FY 1991 and planned to request an additional 80 members in each subsequent year through FY 1995; (5) the 1989 work-load assessment concluded that OIG needed a staffing level of 809 to provide maximum coverage of VA operations; and (6) in determining its staffing requirements, OIG did not establish audit or investigative priorities for VA facilities, programs, and functions.