VA renews effort to improve financial, asset management

The Veterans Affairs Department plans to begin work on a system to manage financial data and essential assets, such as medical equipment, three years after scrapping a previous effort.

The Financial and Logistics Integrated Technology Enterprise (FLITE) program aims to standardize VA’s work processes and modernize the information technology that supports financial and logistics management, according to a notice published Jan. 14 on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site. VA anticipates that the modernized system will eliminate its major financial weaknesses.

The department plans to hold a briefing on Feb. 12 to brief potential bidders on the proposed technical requirements and business approach.

The program has two components: the Strategic Asset Management project and the Integrated Financial Accounting System. The FLITE program also includes requirements for program management support, organizational change management and independent verification and validation. VA has said it plans to implement FLITE in fiscal 2009.

The FLITE program replaces its failed Core Financial and Logistics System, which VA eliminated in 2004 after it had spent $342 million on the project.

CoreFLS, piloted at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Fla., did not operate correctly, resulting in postponed surgeries because equipment was not available. VA said it also had customized the commercial system on which CoreFLS was based to such an extent that it could not be repeated at other facilities even if it operated properly. VA has developed the FLITE program incorporating recommendations from PricewaterhouseCoopers, which evaluated the department’s financial environment following the fiasco.