Wednesday, August 26, 2009

VA Spends $70M and Fails to Obtain Useable Application

VAOIG determines that the Replacement Scheduling Application (RSA) which was started in February 2001 has spent $70 million through January 2009 and has no viable RSA application that is deployable.


Report Summary
Review of the Award and Administration of Task Orders Issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the Replacement Scheduling Application Development Program (RSA)

Report Number 09-01926-207, 8/26/2009

At the request of the ranking member, Senate committee on Veterans’ Affairs, we conducted a review of the award and administration of the task orders issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). The purpose of the task orders was to develop the Replacement Scheduling Application (RSA) which was to replace VA’s scheduling system which was two decades old. Work began on the project in February 2001 with the objective of selecting a Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) software program. However, in April 2002, the scope of the RSA project was changed to from a COTS based solution to an in-house build of a scheduling application. From February 2001 through the termination of SwRI’s contract in March 2009, we found that VA’s program planning and oversight of the RSA project was lacking and/or ineffective due to program specific and IT system issues. The primary issues were a lack of requirements and program planning, a lack of VA staff with the necessary expertise to execute the RSA project, and multiple changes in the VA IT organizations who had responsibility for the program. As a result, VA has expended over $70 million through January 2009 and has no viable RSA application that is deployable.

Army Introduces $117M Program to Help Soldiers Deal with Stress

Full Article: US army spends $117m on soldiers' psychological resilience
Updated at: 1824 PST, Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Army introduces the $117m initiative, patterned after a British program, to help troops handle their stress before it becomes debilitating and leads to mental illness.

From October 1 all active-duty, reserve and National Guard soldiers will be required to take a “resiliency” test to assess their emotional, spiritual and physical state.

"The new scheme is similar to one already in operation for British troops. The Trauma Risk Management system (TRim) is a peer-level management strategy for soldiers dealing with the aftermath of traumatic events.

It was developed within the Royal Marines and has since been introduced to the Army, as well as being used by non-military organisations like the Foreign Office and the London Ambulance Service."