The Department of Veterans Affairs spent a significant portion of the roughly $36.7 billion in combined COVID-19 relief funding it received in 2020 and 2021 to enhance departmentwide digital services and improve its information technology efforts, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office released on Tuesday.
The GAO analysis was required by the VA Transparency and Trust Act of 2021, which included a provision requiring GAO to “review obligations and expenditures of the supplemental funds” that the department received from three COVID relief bills: the CARES Act, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act—or FFCRA—and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021—or ARPA.
“As of August 23, 2022, VA had obligated approximately 99 percent of its funds from the CARES Act and FFCRA and 56.9 percent of funds from ARPA,” the report noted…
