Inspection of the VA Regional Office Anchorage, Alaska

We conducted this inspection to evaluate how well the Anchorage VARO accomplishes its mission of providing veterans with access to high-quality benefits and services. We found VARO staff inaccurately processed 50 percent of the temporary 100 percent disability evaluations we reviewed due to lack of effective controls. However, VARO managers generally ensured staff accurately reported to VBA actions taken on temporary 100 disability claims to address our prior audit report recommendations. Errors in processing of TBI claims were also identified. Although our results show VARO staff did not accurately process 18 of the 38 disability claims, these results do not represent the overall accuracy of disability claims processing at this VARO as we sample selected types of claims at higher risk of processing error. VARO staff provided adequate outreach to homeless veterans but did not address Gulf War veterans’ entitlement to mental health treatment. The VARO Director concurred with our recommendations.