Audit of Veterans Health Administration’s Management of Non-Controlled Drugs

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an audit to determine how accurately the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) could account for inventories of non-controlled drugs at increased risk for waste and diversion in its health care facilities (facilities). VHA needs to improve the accountability for non-controlled drugs to reduce the risk of waste, and diversion. VHA cannot accurately account for its non-controlled drug inventories because it lacks effective controls and reliable information to do so. The accurate and complete data needed to account for these drugs is not available, and the current system lacks the capability to capture information on some drugs that are returned to a facility and restocked. The implementation and enforcement of sufficient controls to ensure accurate and complete information is imperative to VHA’s ability to account for and safeguard non-controlled drug inventories. Complete and standardized annual physical inventory data is needed to help VHA establish accountability for its non-controlled drug inventories. The Acting Under Secretary for Health agreed with the report’s findings and recommendations. We consider VHA’s planned actions acceptable and will follow up on the implementation of each action. We will close the recommendations when all proposed actions are completed.