VA to terminate 585 non-mission-critical or duplicative contracts

WASHINGTON — Following a thorough review of nearly 2,000 professional services contracts, the Department of Veterans Affairs today began canceling 585 non-mission-critical or duplicative contracts. These contracts, which will be phased out over the next few days, represent less than one percent of the roughly 90,000 contracts VA currently has in place.

The value of the contract cancellations announced today totals about $1.8 billon. After accounting for the money already spent on the contracts, the cancellations will enable VA to redirect about $900 million back toward health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries.

The termination of these contracts will not negatively affect Veteran care, benefits or services, and will help VA better focus on its core mission: providing the best possible care and services to Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors.

Among the contract cancellations announced today are those that paid contractors to generate “contract deliverables” for other contractors to fulfill. Other canceled contracts cover administrative services that VA can perform on its own, such as staff mentoring, leadership coaching, preparation of meeting agendas and meeting minutes, as well as services such as “executive support” that involve creating PowerPoint slides.

The contract cancellations announced today were identified through a deliberative, multi-level review that involved the career subject-matter expert employees responsible for the contracts as well as VA senior leaders and contracting officials. As part of the process, VA career employees evaluated the contracts based on how closely they support Veterans and VA beneficiaries. Contracts that directly support Veterans, beneficiaries or provide services VA cannot do itself, such as a nurse who sees patients or an organization that provides third-party certification services, respectively, were not canceled. Contracts that involved services VA has the ability to perform itself were typically canceled.

“Under President Trump, VA is focused on becoming more efficient, responsive and accountable to the Veterans, family members, caregivers and survivors we are charged with serving. We are putting Veterans first at VA. That means finding new and better ways to do our jobs and focus our resources. Every dollar we spend on wasteful or duplicative contracts is one less dollar we can spend on Veterans, and given that choice, I will always side with the Veteran,” said VA Secretary Doug Collins.

As part of its review, VA career subject-matter expert employees responsible for the contract cancelations were given the option to stop a cancellation if they felt it would negatively impact health care, benefits or services for Veterans or VA beneficiaries.

During the review, VA found many duplicative contracts that were providing the exact same services, such as third-party certifications for items like enhanced-use leases. VA eliminated duplicative contracts while keeping in place others that provide those services to ensure operational continuity.

The 585 contract cancellations announced today represent the first step in VA’s comprehensive and ongoing audit of roughly 90,000 department contracts worth more than $67 billion. VA expects to announce more changes to optimize its contracting operations in the future. Contracts will be canceled in some instances, and in other instances new contracts will be created. But ultimately, VA will be able to redirect billions of dollars toward benefits and services that directly help Veterans and beneficiaries.

VA anticipates additional savings as its contract audit continues, and in the coming weeks and months, the department will be announcing plans to put these resources to work helping the department better fulfill its core mission: providing the best possible care and benefits to Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors.