{"id":58104,"date":"2022-05-05T17:49:58","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T17:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/05\/05\/thousands-of-smartphones-purchased-by-va-went-unused\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:55:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:55:36","slug":"thousands-of-smartphones-purchased-by-va-went-unused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/veterans\/2022\/05\/05\/thousands-of-smartphones-purchased-by-va-went-unused\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of smartphones purchased by VA went unused"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs wasted nearly $2 million dollars when most of the smartphones bought during the pandemic for homeless veterans<\/a> went unused, according to an inspector general\u2019s report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report, released Wednesday, found that the Veterans Health Administration spent nearly $7 million to purchase 10,000 phones with unlimited prepaid calling plans but that 85% of the phones gathered dust. As a result, it lost $1.8 million in wasted data plan costs. The inspector general also found that $571,000 was wasted on data plans due to poor oversight of its purchase of nearly 81,000 iPads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The smartphones and iPads were purchased as part of the efforts to increase homeless veterans\u2019 access to telehealth, a program that saw video visits increase from about 2,500 in February 2020 to 38,000 in September 2020. The veterans were enrolled in a Department of Housing and Urban Development VA Supportive housing program.<\/p>\n\n\n\t