Review of Interagency Agreement between the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Navy, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR)

At the request of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Ranking Minority Member of the House Committee Veterans’ Affairs, we conducted a review of the Interagency Agreement (IAA) between the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Information and Technology, Office of Enterprise Development (OED), and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR). The IAA was entered into in November 2007, under the authority of the Economy Act to provide government employee and contractor technical support for analysis, planning, program review and engineering services for Information Management/Information Technology initiatives. We found that VA had obligated $66 million under the IAA and that there are additional projects to be awarded that will add an additional $73 million in funding. We concluded that neither VA nor SPAWAR has complied with the terms and conditions of the IAA. We found that SPAWAR and SPAWAR contractors were developing the Statements of Work and Independent Government Cost Estimates. We also found that 87 percent of the level of performed under the IAA is performed by SPAWAR contractors and subcontracts. OED was not involved in the award or administration of those contracts and did not know who was performing the work, how many people were involved, or where they were located. We concluded that OED has relinquished its oversight role of financial performance and work performed under the IAA to SPAWAR. We suggested that VA re-evaluate the IAA and determine whether it is the best interest of VA to continue obtaining services through this type of agreement. If it is determined to continue to procure services in this manner, we made a number of suggestions to be incorporated in any future IAAs.