Colorado is failing to adequately plan for, supervise and support its veterans service program, according to a performance audit released on Wednesday.

As of last year, there were around 388,000 veterans living in Colorado. These veterans rely on state service officers to help them obtain benefits and resources, such as pensions, disability compensation, medical care and education assistance, through the state’s Division of Veterans Affairs.

The Office of the State Auditor found extreme inconsistencies in access to veteran services throughout the state.

In some areas of Colorado, veterans frequently experience waits of more than two weeks before being able to discuss assistance with service officers, while other areas have no wait times at all. In the Denver metro area, the ratio of veterans to service officers was 10,000 to one, while all other regions had ratios of less than 3,000 to one.

The audit also found that approximately one-third of veterans service officers reported that they lacked adequate training to perform their duties, describing their initial training as too complex, provided too late or having gaps in the content.

“Veterans and their families rely on VSO expertise to help them understand which benefits they qualify for and to properly handle their claims,” said Dana Berry, legislative performance auditor. “Ensuring effective training for VSOs is one of the best ways the State can support our veterans.”

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The inconsistencies continue into the effective hourly rates counties receive from the division to pay service officers, ranging from $8.65 to $55.38 per hour.

The audit also uncovered inadequate security policies for the Division of Veterans Affairs’ case management system, leaving the sensitive data of veterans not fully protected. The division fails to regularly monitor access to the system, with some staff maintaining access to the system even though they had not logged into their user accounts for up to seven years.

Other issues uncovered in the audit included 80% of payments made to counties not being fully supported by county reports and a lack of strategic planning and processes to guide the division’s operations, culminating in an unfulfilled statutory directive from 2009 to create a clearinghouse of veterans service information.

The Office of the State Auditor made eight recommendations for the division to improve its operations, such as establishing new performance targets, training programs, data protocols and county finance request forms. The Division of Veterans Affairs agreed to all of the recommendations.

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