Comment from Makita Thatcher on VA-2026-VACO-0001-0203

VA OIG Hotline Privacy Act System Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records Inspector General Hotline / Complaint Center Records, 66VA53 Docket No. VA-2025-VACO-0001 91 FR 36230 06/16/2026 To the Department of Veterans Affairs: I submit this comment on the modified system of records notice for the VA Office of Inspector General Hotline / Complaint Center Records, 66VA53. The statutory hook is the Inspector General Act and the Privacy Act. The Inspector General framework exists to detect and prevent fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, abuse of authority, and dangers to public health and safety. The Privacy Act exists to give structure, limits, notice, and accountability to agency systems that maintain records about individuals. The administrative choke point is the complaint record system. A hotline is not merely an inbox. It is the place where allegations become records, records become referrals, referrals become investigations or closures, and later oversight depends on whether the original material can be retrieved, understood, protected, and lawfully reviewed. The human consequence is trust. Veterans, beneficiaries, employees, contractors, witnesses, and private citizens may hesitate to report wrongdoing if they cannot understand how their information will be stored, shared, searched, retained, corrected where appropriate, or protected from retaliation. A complaint system that is opaque may still receive allegations, but it may weaken confidence in whether the record will survive and whether the complainant will be protected. The structural question is this: can VA OIG preserve investigative confidentiality while also giving the public enough clarity to trust that complaints will not disappear into an unreviewable chamber? I urge VA OIG to clarify how complainant confidentiality is protected when complaints are referred outside the OIG; how anonymous complainants and witnesses are protected; how complainants may receive status or closure information where possible; and how uploaded documents, scanned evidence, correspondence, and reports remain linked to the relevant case record. The notice states that some uploaded materials cannot be searched or retrieved through a general database search. That limitation deserves careful attention because oversight depends not only on whether records exist, but whether they can be found. I also urge VA OIG to publish aggregate, non-identifying data on complaint categories, referrals, dispositions, and processing timelines. The principle is that an Inspector General hotline must protect investigations, but it must also preserve trust. A public accountability system should be confidential where necessary, but never structurally forgetful. Respectfully submitted, Makita Thatcher Georgia resident