GAO: VA has supply overlaps

      The Veterans Affairs Dept. needs to look more closely at apparent duplication between the two separate acquisition systems it uses for purchasing billions of dollars in medical supplies, the Government Accountability Office reported.

      The VA uses both the Federal Supply Schedule as well as the VA’s Medical Surgical Prime Vendor-NextGeneration (MSPV-NG).

      “These two programs feature many of the same items, and different contracting staff manage different contracts for the provision of the same or similar medical supplies for VA medical centers,” the GAO report said.

      “Without assessing duplication between these two programs, VA is at risk of inefficient use of its contracting workforce and may be unable to fully leverage its buying power,” the report said.

      VA officials agreed with the recommendation to assess duplication and said a review is underway and will be finished by June. They also said a VA Category Management Program Office is being formed to oversee future efforts to avoid duplication.

      The GAO also made eight recommendations for data management, training and improved timeliness of medical purchases. The lack of senior leadership at the department from 2015-2018 contributed to many of the problems, GAO said. VA agreed with all the recommendations.

More information:
GAO report: https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/704351.pdf

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