The Subcommittee on Health will now come to order.  I would like to thank everyone for attending this hearing.

The purpose of today’s hearing is to investigate potential weaknesses in VHA’s contracting and procurement practices and explore ways that we can strengthen how VHA contracts and procures medical equipments and health care products for our veterans.

In recent years, we have seen many reports and studies on VA’s contracting and procurement activities.  These reports have identified the need for increased transparency and fiscal responsibility, as well as highlighted problems of inadequate competition and lack of accountability and oversight. 

As a result of these deficiencies in VHA’s contracting and procurement practices, veterans may not be getting the latest innovations in health care products.  This was made evident at our June Health Subcommittee hearing on wireless health technologies and the difficulties that many private companies faced in informing VA about their products and getting their products in the hands of our veterans. 

Furthermore, we are all aware of the problem of dirty reusable medical equipments at certain VA medical centers.  Today, we will hear from GAO about a study that they are conducting on the purchasing and tracking of supplies and medical equipment.  Their preliminary observations include the potential risks to veterans’ safety when there is noncompliance with VA purchasing and tracking requirements.

Finally, internal control weaknesses with VHA’s use of billions in miscellaneous obligations continues to be problem.  Because VA contracting officials don’t have sufficient controls over the authorization and use of miscellaneous obligations, it is unclear whether these obligations were for legitimate needs.

As we can see, the implications of contracting and procurement deficiencies go beyond the fiscal component to have a potentially negative impact on the health care that our veterans receive.

I look forward to hearing from today’s witnesses, as we aim to better understand the challenges facing VHA contracting and procurement practices and work together to find potential solutions to these challenges.