Collapse of costly VA computer system under investigation

Civil and criminal investigators will examine the collapse of a $472 million computer system at Florida's Bay Pines veterans' hospital, according to an Associated Press report.

The system was intended for eventual use by all Veterans Affairs Department hospitals but was closed this summer after a nine-month trial and a $278 million bill footed by taxpayers.

Federal prosecutors have issued two subpoenas to system architect BearingPoint, though the Justice Department and VA declined further comment.

"One deals with allegations involving criminal activity; the other one involves matters of civil litigation, basically involving money," said Jon Wooditch, a spokesman for the VA inspector general.

BearingPoint stressed in a statement Tuesday that "the government has neither identified nor made any allegations or claims of criminal conduct pertaining to BearingPoint."