Veterans Affairs seeks 6 percent hike in IT spending for fiscal 2010

Eric Shinseki, secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department, promised to use information technology to transform the department into a 21st century organization, and requested a more than 6 percent increase in its fiscal 2010 IT budget to meet that goal.

VA asked for $3.4 billion for IT, up $205 million from the $3.2 billion in fiscal 2009. The department wants to allocate almost a quarter of the increase, or $48 million, to develop its financial and integrated technologies enterprise project. The new system will replace the core financial and logistical system, which the department canceled in 2004 after the VA inspector general concluded the program had serious flaws even though $249 million had been spent on it.

VA proposed $1.4 billion for general administration and management in the IT budget request, about a 10 percent increase from fiscal 2009.

The Veterans Health Administration asked for a less than 2 percent increase, to $1.6 billion, for its fiscal 2010 IT budget.

One of the largest IT budget increases came from the Veterans Benefits Administration, which is adding a system to process claims under the GI bill. The agency wants a $333 million IT budget for fiscal 2010, a 21 percent increase from the $276 million budget in fiscal 2009.

The fiscal 2010 IT budget for the Cemetery Administration would remain flat at $7 million.