Federal Daily - October 21, 2008

VA Suspends All Document Shredding

The Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) announced Oct. 16 that it has suspended all file shredding until inspectors figure out why a handful of unduplicated documents related to veterans’ applications for financial benefits were headed for the agency shredder. The documents were discovered by employees of VA’s Inspector General (IG) during an audit at three of VA’s 56 regional benefits offices, which process applications for disability pay, VA pensions, educational assistance, home loans and similar financial benefits. The loss of the documents could have been critical, because no duplicates exist and the potential benefits for the veterans involved could have been affected, said VA Secretary James Peake. After the IG auditors found the documents waiting to be shredded, the items were pulled from the line and returned to the proper offices for processing. In addition to finding out why the documents were misidentified, inspectors will attempt to find out if the problem is widespread, VA said. VA has procedures for determining the disposition of paperwork. For example, original copies of discharge papers, marriage certificates and death certificates are returned to veterans or families when no longer needed. In the wake of the incident, directors of VA regional offices will now have to certify in writing that no original copies of key documents or records from veterans’ cases under consideration are being destroyed. “It is unacceptable that documents important to a veteran’s claim for benefits should be misplaced or destroyed,” Peake said. To see more, go to: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1602.

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FDA to Open Overseas Offices

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will soon open Food and Drug Administration (FDA) overseas offices, beginning with one in China, as part of its overall strategy to improve the safety of food and drug shipments headed to this country. New offices also are expected to follow in India, Europe and Latin America later this year or sometime next year, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said Oct. 16. HHS anticipates posting a total of eight U.S. nationals in China, with the first arriving at FDA’s Beijing office this fall, Leavitt said. Others will be posted in FDA branch offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou sometime next year. Leavitt is scheduled to travel to China in November to meet with Chinese health officials to review efforts to ensure the safety of food and medical products consumed by the two nations—particularly those imported into the United States, HHS said. HHS plans on establishing its second overseas FDA office in India, with staff first posting to New Delhi in 2008 and at least one additional office to follow in 2009. Plans call for 10 U.S. nationals to be posted in India. HHS also will be opening FDA overseas offices in Europe and Latin America before the end of 2008, with a fifth office in the Middle East to follow soon in early to mid-2009. The new offices are an attempt to improve product safety following a series of incidents in which tainted food and pharmaceuticals were imported into this country. Previously, federal officials relied extensively on inspections at the border to ferret out unsafe goods, an approach that has not kept up with the growth in global commerce, HHS said. “The globalization of the food supply and medical product manufacturing has demanded that we do things differently,” said FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach. To see more, go to: www.dhhs.gov/news/press/2008pres/10/20081016a.html.

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Klein Named New GSA Policy Office Chief

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