Workload at Costly VA Call Centers: 2 Calls a Day

The Veterans Affairs Department has spent millions on employment call centers so overstaffed that workers only handle a call or two per day, inspectors have discovered. The two centers—operated by a private contractor—handled an average of 2.4 calls per operator daily between December 2011 and December 2012, but instead of cutting back on operators, the VA expanded the hours of operation to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, based on projections from the contractor, Fox reports.

The workload then dropped to 1.4 calls a day per employee. The inspector general's report concluded that the overspend, estimated to reach $13 million through 2015, happened because the department failed to ask the contractor for data on call volume. (More Department of Veterans Affairs stories.)