Report 2015-505 Recommendation 1 Responses

Report 2015-505: Follow-Up—California Department of Veterans Affairs: Better Collection and Use of Data Would Improve Its Outreach Efforts, and It Needs to Strengthen Its Oversight of County Veterans Service Officer Programs (Release Date: July 2015)

Recommendation #1 To: Veterans Affairs, Department of

CalVet should fully implement the recommendations from our 2009 report.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From July 2017

All recommendations for report 2009-108 were fully implemented in our July 2016 response. Please reference those responses and the State Auditor assessments of the implementation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

Responses for report 2009-108 were entered as annual follow up responses in that report.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

Responses for report 2009-108 were entered as annual follow up responses in that report.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

CalVet continues to gather demographic information and conduct needs assessments through a variety of channels including the Geographic Distribution of Expenditures report, County Veterans Services Office (CVSO) Subvention Reports, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VetPop Data, while continuing to connect veterans and their families with services and benefits through ongoing strategies and partnerships. CalVet understands the significance of the myCalVet site and its potential to supply information statewide in an ongoing and cost effective way. CalVet is exploring the feasibility and cost required to use an external vendor in order to fully implement the recommendation to develop a marketing plan to analyze data from the website to target outreach. The scope of work in development and includes an analysis of the website profile data, development of a targeted outreach plan to increase awareness of benefits and services as well as encouraging veterans to create profiles regionally in the state through a digital marketing campaign.

The CalVet CVSO Auditor is currently implementing procedures for the audit functions to include periodic reviews of CVSO claims activities and College Fee Waiver Program. Claim activities and College Fee Waivers along with their supporting documentation are be verified by the CVSO Auditor on a periodic basis. The written desk procedures for these processes will be completed by December 31, 2015. District Office staff continue to provide regular training and feedback to CVSOs including feedback on corrections made to incoming claims on a monthly basis, and will continue to provide training to all CVSOs at three training conferences each year. Regulations to require CVSOs to report information on their outreach activities to CalVet are in discussion at this time.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented

All Recommendations in 2015-505

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.