The Department of Veterans Affairs has failed to plan for the large number of retiring employees and to fill currently empty positions largely due to a lack of consistency in leadership, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Oct. 10.

“VA lacks a current, departmentwide succession plan. According to VA officials, VA has not produced a departmentwide succession plan since 2009 due to leadership turnover,” the report said.

“VA has not updated its succession planning directive since 2003 and VA officials told us that the directive does not incorporate legal requirements put in place since then. The directive establishes requirements and responsibilities for succession planning across VA. VA officials stated that they have not updated the directive because of leadership turnover and changes in legal requirements.”

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VA leadership has remained tumultuous throughout the Trump administration, with three acting directors and two Senate-confirmed directors since President Donald Trump entered office in January 2017.

The current VA secretary, Robert Wilkie, previously served as acting director of the agency while Trump’s then choice for the post, former White House physician Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, was being examined by the Senate. Jackson was accused of drinking and mismanagement on the job, and withdrew his nomination, leading Trump to turn to Wilkie to formally take up the role.

The highest position at the agency is not the only one that has not been consistently filled, as experts have told Congress that a lack of consistent IT leadership has also damaged the agency’s ability to improve its technology.

According to the report, about a third of VA workers will be eligible to retire by 2022, on top of the already 11 percent vacancy rate at the agency’s medical facilities.

GAO reviewers determined that five leading practices were needed to properly address agency workforce needs: obtain active support and participation from leadership; develop succession plans that align with strategic goals; analyze current and future workforce gaps; identify strategies for closing those gaps; and monitor, evaluate and update succession plans.

The report found that VA only partially met the requirement for identifying strategies to close workforce gaps and failed to meet the other four requirements.

VA officials said that they had tried to update their succession plans but failed to obtain approval for those plans due to leadership turnover.

GAO recommended that the VA develop a succession plan for leadership and mission critical positions, incorporate key leading practices into Veterans Health Administration’s succession planning processes, develop a succession planning process for all leadership positions and incorporate key leading practices into Veterans Benefits Administration succession planning and that the secretary of Veterans Affairs should update VA's 2003 directive on workforce and succession planning to incorporate relevant legal requirements, including Office of Personnel Management strategic human capital management regulation requirements.

VA agreed with all four recommendations.

The American Federation of Government Employees has also criticized VA leadership for the treatment of their workers, both in proposing overly restrictive collective bargaining agreements and instituting a hiring freeze in 2017 that kept critical positions from being filled.

But the agency has said that such criticism is merely a dislike of change and that leadership’s proposals are designed to improve workforce management.

About Jessie Bur

Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.

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