Veterans Affairs can’t account for software licenses in face of $985M annual bill

Quick take

It has been reported that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) faced "challenges" in knowing the correct number of software licenses it should hold for the five vendors underpinning roughly $985 million in planned fiscal‑2025 software spending. How do you lose track of licenses when contracts and bills are piling up? Short answer: messy inventory, patchy processes, and a pile of restrictive vendor terms. Not great — especially when veterans’ services depend on the software.

What the GAO found

The GAO said the VA identified its five most widely used vendors and the highest quantities of installed licenses but could not reliably determine whether it was over‑buying or under‑buying. The department did not regularly compare inventories of licenses in use to purchase records. The watchdog noted this is not new: software license management was flagged as a focus area back in 2015, and a January 2024 report urged the VA to track usage and reconcile purchases. The VA has reportedly taken preliminary steps and planned to roll out initial functionality for a centralized license inventory in late March 2026 — a potential first step toward stopping money from being left on the table.

Why it matters

Beyond bookkeeping, the GAO flagged "restrictive software licensing practices" — vendor clauses and processes that limit cloud use — as a material drag on the VA’s cloud options and costs. Those restrictions allegedly increased prices or boxed the agency into fewer providers, complicating migration to modern cloud services. That sting is the emotional core here: this isn’t a dry accounting quirk. Mismanaged licenses and vendor lock‑in can directly impact the timeliness, cost and flexibility of systems that serve veterans. Ouch.

What’s next

VA agreed with the GAO recommendations and told the watchdog it expects to implement additional actions by September 30, 2026. The GAO warns that without follow‑through, the department risks undermining its ability to manage software that delivers critical services. The VA press office provided a statement to The Register. Accountability will matter — and fast. After all, you can’t fix what you can’t count.

Sources: The Register