Summary

[Abstract not available]

GAO found that the VA methodology was reasonable, but application problems arose when more than one project was considered in a district. GAO was concerned that planners: (1) inconsistently calculated unmet needs among the districts; and (2) applied the same percentage of unmet needs to each of two projects in two medical districts. GAO also found that, because one district had the highest unmet needs, the two projects in that district received the highest priority and, therefore, were included in the VA budget request. However, if only one of those projects was funded, the district's unmet needs would drop and would change the priority of the remaining project. VA stated that it was developing a new methodology for setting priorities which would rank each project in a district and recalculate the district's unmet needs percentage after each ranking. This would make the higher priority projects more available in the target year and lower the unmet needs percentage in the other projects.