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Paper Files Threaten VA Building Collapse!

Shiver me timbers! Errr . . . Bend Me I-Beams! Crack Me Concrete!

Seeing is believing! Check this photo gallery to see the destructive force of . . . PAPER!

Vets . . . you ever wonder why those applications take soooo long? Or why once an application has been filed it can take 6 months . . . or it can take over a year?

Seems the VA Office of Inspector General recently completed an “onsite benefit inspection” of the VA Regional Office in Winston-Salem. Cited were “an excessive number of claims folders stored on top of, and around, filing cabinets.

We noticed floors bowing under the excess weight to the extent that the tops of file cabinets were noticeably unlevel throughout the storage area.

Pictures are worth a thousand words . . . so here is a photo gallery courtesy of the VA Office of Inspector General. All photo captions are quotes from the VA Office of Inspector General report.

This over-storage creates an unsafe environment for the employees, overexposes many claims folders to risk of fire/water damage, inadvertent loss and possible misplacement . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We estimated that approximately 37,000 claims folders were stored on top of file cabinets.

 

The excess weight of the stored files has the potential to compromise the structural integrity of the sixth floor of the facility.
A GSA fire inspection report . . . expressed concerns about “floor stack loading” on the floor stating that it constituted “an extreme fire load and a possible structural overloading concern.”

 

 

File cabinets were placed so closely together that file drawers could not be opened completely."

 

 

 

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