Veterans

each office, and learn who is responsible and if the VA intends to hold anyone accountable.

“Right now VA leaders have a choice,” said Miller, a Republican from Florida. “They can either fire those responsible for these failures — including those who have now moved on to other positions within the agency — or keep those who caused the problems on the VA payroll, ensuring the substandard service to veterans the IG has documented continues.”

Oakland is the conduit for $ 1.9 billion in benefits that annually go to more than 137,000 Northern California vets. In February, the office was questioned by VA investigators over how a file cabinet came to be filled with “informal” claims from vets seeking to file for benefits and compensation connected to their military service.

The investigation, which was requested by LaMalfa after whistleblowers turned to his office alleging that there was a cover- up, found that Oakland managers conceded that 13,184 claims were improperly stored. But investigators couldn’t verify that number due to “poor record keeping practices.” Later, Allison Hickey, the VA undersecretary for benefits, said the file cabinet contained only duplicates.

Boor said Monday that Oakland staffers told VA investigators the same thing, although that wasn’t included in the eight- page report.

In late 2012, when the claims were discovered, the national VA benefits system was in crisis. Oakland, in particular, was overwhelmed. A special team even was sent to help Oakland, which at the time had 35,000 pending formal claims from Northern California vets.

When a review was conducted of those file cabinet informal claims — ones not filled out on the proper paperwork — it was determined that they were copies and 97 percent required no

“Half of our employees are veterans. So I have no reason to believe that anyone did anything improper on purpose. But was this the best record- keeping practice? Probably not.” — JulianaBoor, director,

Oakland VA office

further action, Boor said. Corrective action was taken on the rest, which usually boosted the compensation award to the vet.

Rustyann Brown, a whistleblower who will appear at Wednesday’s hearing, is adamant that those claims were not duplicates — recalling how one claim was a handwritten plea on stationery from a World War II widow.

Boor acknowledged that without a full list, there is no way to verify the VA’s numbers independently.

“There’s no indication that there was any mishandling,” Boor said. “But we can’t disapprove any allegations because we don’t have every document. But our people care for veterans. Half of our employees are veterans. So I have no reason to believe that anyone did anything improper on purpose. But was this the best record- keeping practice? Probably not.”

Boor said the Oakland staff has reduced the size of the backlog to 16,000, cut the time veterans must wait and have improved the accuracy of processing claims.

“A lot of progress has been made,” she said. “There was a problem. But we have addressed the problem. I don’t mind looking back to make sure that no veterans ( have) been left behind. But we are looking forward.”