WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), recognized for applying "best practice" techniques in health care, patient safety and information management, is receiving similar praise for its financial management activities.
"I am pleased with the savings our financial management team has generated on behalf of our veterans," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi. "In addition to providing the highest quality care and benefits to veterans, we must also be good stewards of the taxpayers' money, as evidenced by our fourth consecutive ‘clean’ audit.”
The General Accounting Office and Government Executive magazine recently recognized the VA Financial Services Center’s efforts to recover excess expenditures as a good example of effective government financial management.
In addition to audits that recovered $39.8 million, other efficiencies and cost savings during FY 2002 were realized in the areas of debt management, prompt payment and expanded use of the government purchase card.
As with any large organization, VA collects fees and pays bills. When fees are not paid, VA's DebtManagementCenter works to collect these debts or have them offset by arranging to withhold some other federal benefit. Those efforts during FY 2002 resulted in collections or offsets totaling $353 million, compared with $312 million in FY 2001.
This 13 percent increase in collections and offsets also resulted in an increased rate of return. VA estimates that collections and offsets returned $59.56 for every $1 spent on collection activities, an increase of 15 percent over the FY 2001 rate.
"These savings demonstrate the benefits of applying sound business practices in government," Principi said. "The real bonus is being able to provide additional services to veterans as a result."
When VA cannot collect debts, they are referred to the Department of the Treasury, which pursues collection on behalf of VA. To date, VA has referred over $270 million to the Treasury Offset Program (TOP), and over $180 million for direct collection by other government or commercial collection services. These amounts exceeded the goal set by the Treasury of referring 95 percent of the eligible debt.
VA processed over 5.2 million invoices subject to the Prompt Payment Act, paying nearly 97 percent of the invoices on time. The number of invoices processed, representing over $9.8 billion, increased by over 600,000 from last year, a 14 percent hike. Paying its bills on time netted VA a 24 percent reduction in interest penalties.
VA’s use of the government purchase card resulted in increased rebates during FY 2002. Using technology that allows daily processing of payments through VA’s contract bank returned nearly $16 million in rebates to VA facilities for use in veterans programs.
