ms. halliday. do you have any opinions as a result of what you have looked into as to items the va may be including in the definition of prosthetics that may be better suited for search s outside of section 8123? >> there was a large inventory of prosthetics when we looked at the medical centers. i think va really has to take a look at which items are not unique but just standardized that you would use on a regular basis and that would be -- take a review to do that. i understand that the vha is moving in that direction. there is just so many. i think when it is unique like a limb, an arm or extension there are very specific requirements. and it has to be taylilored to e veterans needs. when we get into the prosthetics inventory within the medical center there are many items that can be standardized. >> thank you. thank you mr. chairman. >>> thank you, mr. chairman. ms. halliday, i have a couple of questions concerning the overpayment. you said on average there was like a $2300 overpayment. was thi

ms. halliday. we will now begin with questions, and i recognize myself for five minutes. ms. halliday, did the inspector general use the v.a.'s definition for prosthetic in its recent audits? >> we looked at the definition, and i believe in the inventories we really didn't find any real problems with it because it was defined, and we could then apply it against the purchases we reviewed. >> okay. your testimony mentions that overpayments generally occurred because vha paid vendor invoices that included charges in excess of prices agreed to in the vendor's contracts with v.a.. did you find any reason as to why or how the v.a. purchasers failed to obtain best value even with the contract in place? >> um, well, the question on the best value led to the contracting officers not trying to negotiate discount rates. the problem with the overpayments was because the invoices that were being received were not receiving adequate review by the cotars prior to certification for payment. so they just were not looking at the invoices in relationship to the terms of the contract. >> okay. yo

ms. halliday, we'll begin with you. >> members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the results of our two recent reports on v.h.a.'s management and acquisition of prosthetic limbs in the management of supply inventories. we conducted our work at the request of the house veterans affairs. i'll discuss our efforts to to deliver prosthetic limb care and manage supply inventories in its medical centers. in our first report, we examined the procurement practices and the costs of prosthetic limbs. we identified opportunities to improve payment controls to avoid overpaying for prosthetic limbs and to improve contract negotiations to obtain the best value for prosthetic limbs purchased from contract vendors. with regard to the cost comparisons in our report addressing v.a. fabricating the prosthetic limbs or processing these limbs via contract, our report concluded v.a. lacked information to make the decisions it needs to make to know whether it should continue with the use of the labs or to rely on contracts to provide these limbs. in no way did we address cutting the qual