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Local Veterans Administration officials appear to have forgotten a vital part of cleaning up after a governmental mess. Public disclosure is key to making corrective actions last.

Mental health providers for the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System kept an unauthorized, off-the-books waiting list for care that revealed longer wait times than the official list, according to documents obtained by World-Herald reporter Steve Liewer.

The documents also raise questions about potentially improper bonus payments the VA made to at least one provider for serving veterans in a timely manner. Some of the payments appear to have been based on the inaccurate, official list of when veterans requested appointments and how quickly they were served.

The VA has offered generic assurances that no veterans were harmed and that employees have been disciplined. But the scant details released thus far provide little reason for public confidence in a federal agency that has battled significant turbulence in recent years in other parts of the country.