VA Health Care: Problems in Implementing Locality Pay for Nurses Not Fully Addressed
HRD-93-54
Published: May 21, 1993. Publicly Released: Jun 01, 1993.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) implementation of a locality pay system (LPS) for nurses, focusing on the adequacy of VA medical centers' surveys in setting nurse salary rates.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Veterans Affairs | The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should report VA administration of the locality pay system to the Office of Management and Budget as a material internal control weakness under the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act. |
On the basis of the results of VA's Office of Human Resources Management's risk assessment and VHA input, a decision was made not to report the nurse LPS administration as a material weakness. VA implementation of planned improvements to LPS will be monitored by the Senior Management Review Council.
|
| Department of Veterans Affairs | The Secretary of Veterans Affairs should develop a plan and a timetable for correcting the internal control weaknesses in the system. |
VHA is taking steps to implement a plan to improve the effectiveness and validity of the nurse LPS. Funding for training data collectors and training to VHA's four regions was approved and training provided in May 1995.
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Topics
CompensationData collectionEmployee trainingHealth care personnelInternal controlsJob classificationReporting requirementsVeterans hospitalsWage surveysPay ratesNurses