Review of Contracted Backup Services for the Veterans Crisis Line

The Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) provides 24/7, confidential suicide prevention support to all veterans, regardless of whether they are enrolled in VA benefits or health care and regardless of discharge status. In this review, the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that VA paid about $11.2 million for VCL call responder backup services that were not provided. The review began after earlier OIG work raised concerns that VA may have paid for more than a year of contracted services that the contractor and subcontractor did not deliver.

The $32.5 million contract required the contractor to route calls to VCL, answer at least 10 percent of VCL calls, and answer all VCL calls in the event of an emergency to help veterans at risk of suicide. When the original subcontractor stopped providing backup services, which represented about $20.5 million (63 percent) of the total contract value, the contractor hired a replacement. However, that subcontractor could not begin work because it had not met federal security requirements and did not have enough staff. Furthermore, the contractor did not train call responders to meet contract terms. VA officials knew about these issues within months of the new subcontract starting but continued to approve payments for nearly a year.

Because services were not delivered, OIG questioned the full $11.2 million paid. This report highlights the need for stronger oversight of VA contracts and reinforces the importance of verifying security compliance before services begin.

The OIG recommended that the VA Office of General Counsel determine whether VA should recover the $11.2 million paid for services not received and that VA evaluate and take any needed actions to make sure information system security requirements are accurately determined for contracts that involve sensitive information. VA concurred with the first recommendation and concurred in principle with the second.