Recommendation Implementation Report – Investigation into the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ communication with veterans making claims for compensation
Media Release
Recommendation Implementation Report – Investigation into the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ communication with veterans making claims for compensation
Today, the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Mr Iain Anderson, published a report assessing the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ (DVA) implementation of recommendations from a January 2022 report on our investigation into DVA’s communication with veterans making claims for compensation. A copy of the recommendation implementation report can be located here.
We report on agencies’ actions to implement recommendations to provide transparency to the public and hold agencies publicly accountable. Here, we found that DVA has implemented all 8 recommendations we made in our January 2022 report. These recommendations were aimed at strengthening the accessibility and transparency of information available to veterans and the internal guidance available to support DVA’s decision makers.
While we have assessed all recommendations as implemented, we made some additional comments about further improvements DVA should make to ensure staff are aware of and adhere to the changes DVA made because of our investigation. DVA have advised that these improvements have been made.
Mr Anderson also noted that he is aware that experiences of individuals with DVA’s claims process may differ. If we consider it necessary, we retain the ability to further consider the effectiveness of these policies and procedures in practice.
Systemic improvement in public administration is an ongoing process. Where we have assessed recommendations as implemented, it remains important that agencies continue to periodically review the effectiveness of the improvements and make further improvements when needed.