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VA WHISTLEBLOWER PAYS HIGH PRICE, AND VETERANS LOSE
AS WELL -- The firing of Dr. Robert Van Boven
sends a
chilling message to VA employees and may put an
end to valuable traumatic brain injury research.
Dr. Robert Van Boven
Story below:
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by Larry Scott
In July of 2007, Dr. Robert Van Boven took over
as head of the VA's traumatic brain injury (TBI) research at the
University of Texas in Austin. Story here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfDEC07/nf122907-2.htm
Shortly after that, he filed a complaint with the
VA's Office of Inspector General (VAOIG) charging waste, fraud and
cronyism in that research program. That story here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfFEB08/nf021208-3.htm
VAOIG investigated... and agreed with some of Van
Boven's complaints, but not all... details here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfAUG08/nf080508-3.htm
Van Boven challenged VAOIG's findings... story
here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfAUG08/nf082008-6.htm
And, guess what? The VA fired Van Boven.
That story here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfnov08/nf110108-3.htm
The appearance that the two are connected is not
coincidental.
Then, the VA decided they might close the TBI
research lab... even as the VA was describing TBI as the "signature wound"
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Details on that are here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfdec08/nf121308-5.htm
But, Van Boven was not done with the matter.
The local outcry was loud and clear: Keep the lab open.
Politicians began taking notice and sided with Van Boven's position to
save the research center... More on that here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfdec08/nf121908-6.htm
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfdec08/nf122708-6.htm
So, where does all of this leave us?
Van Boven is out at the VA. He has had to
take a position working in another state... away from his family.
VA did an "internal" investigation of the Austin
program. It is basically a white-wash.
At this time the U.S. Office of Special Counsel
is conducting an investigation... looking at reprisals against
whistleblowers.
 Members
of the House Vets' Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation
are looking into the matter.
And, Van Boven sits and waits for the wheels of
the many bureaucracies to move a little faster.
Van Boven isn't vindictive. He just wants
the VA to keep the lab open and he wants his job back.
And, he doesn't wallow in self-pity. He
knew the risks when he turned VA whistleblower.
In a recent email to me Van Boven stated that his
personal fall-out from this experience:
"...pales in significance to the more than
4,000 soldiers killed, and more than 320,000 injured, in service to our
country in Iraq and Afghanistan...But a much larger issue is at stake
that your readers should not only be aware of but should speak out
about. Waste, misconduct and cronyism in the VA plays no small role in
the $100 billion spent without commensurate services for our veterans.
No substantial mechanism is in place to protect federal government
whistle-blowers from reprisals when witnessing the shenanigans. With
only 1% of complainants obtaining relief (20/2000 in FY2007) from the
U.S. Office of Special Counsel from retaliations for speaking out, the
watch-word to the whistle-blower is 'blow the whistle not.'"
What about the future of the TBI research?
Van Boven said:
"The VA will close the BIRL
[TBI research] to bury the story (damage control). The VA needs external
oversight for accountability. Concerns I raised were independently
confirmed by 5 outside experts from the leading institutions in America.
Yet the VA persisted in a cover up motivated out of self-interest and
self-preservation. I was an outsider rocking the boat."
President Obama promised more protection for
government whistleblowers, even encouraging them to come forward.
But, language that would toughen whistleblower protections was stripped
out of the Stimulus Package (Democrats and Republicans could not agree on
exact wording).
This story sends a chilling message to government
employees who see wrong-doing: If you want to survive, just shut up!
And, in this particular case, it sends an awful
message to the nation's veterans. It tells us VA is willing to shut
down a TBI research center just to protect itself.
---------------
Van Boven's latest commentary was published
here...
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/conten
t/editorial/stories/02/21/0221vanboven_edit.html
Posted below:
---------------
COMMENTARY
Van Boven: Time to bring accountability to VA
Robert Van Boven
LOCAL CONTRIBUTOR
At a time when fiscal responsibility and accountability in government are
so crucial, the $100 billion annual budget of Veterans Affairs, the
second-largest department in government, should be front and center for
transparent analysis.
The VA's Office of Research Oversight conducted and recently released
another internal self-regulatory investigation in January, after nearly a
year of repeated requests, filled with serious noncompliance issues at
Central Texas Veterans Health Care System. Not surprisingly,
self-disclosure and self-criticism by the VA was remarkably cleansed and
spun to appear benign. But with the estimated 150,000 to 300,000 survivors
of brain injury from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and 1.5 million
civilian victims annually in the balance, a call for higher performance
and accountability from our public servants and employees in government is
paramount.
The Associate Chief of Staff suppressed disclosures of research
improprieties from review by the committees responsible for research
integrity and compliance. He admitted requesting that disclosures be
recalled and erased. His excuse? He wondered whether the serious
allegations were in good faith. These verbal and written disclosures
included fraud, plagiarism, funding of an unqualified person and invalid
human research (corroborated by five outside experts from Harvard, Johns
Hopkins and other leading universities).
Further, adequate review of protocol for scientific merit did not occur
for this and other research. The report confirmed that the chief of staff
was overseeing research in violation of committee rules and regulations.
In all, this report found more than 27 violations or instances of
noncompliance in the research program at the Central Texas system.
A related VA Inspector General report also substantiated that managers
failed to act on disclosures of inappropriate financial expenditures. More
than $2 million dollars were spent over two years without any product or
research on a single veteran. One project, found to be scientifically
invalid and led by an untrained investigator, spent more than $200,000 in
research resources without a budget or recording data. The VA's Inspector
General report also determined that this and other research had paid over
$120,000 to a contractor accused of fraud, whose behavior escaped further
scrutiny because he was working without a valid contract. But the VA did
not call for remedies for senior management misconduct in suppressing and
failing to act upon the above disclosures for investigation.
This poster-child of waste and mismanagement of public funding and
precious resources intended to help our wounded warriors here in Texas
lies hidden in public view, and the bureaucracy membership unfettered. The
public deserves better.
Unfortunately, the VA solution was to form a committee in November, out of
public view, to study the closure of the only dedicated traumatic brain
injury research program in Texas, the Brain Imaging and Recovery
Laboratory. Upon discovery, the Vietnam Veterans of America, Veterans for
Common Sense, Sen. John Cornyn, and U.S. Reps. Lamar Smith, Michael McCaul,
Lloyd Doggett and John Carter all protested to this closure. The VA
solution? It will be conducting yet another internal study this week to
further consider shutting down the program based at the University of
Texas.
Ironically, not a single VA manager has been held accountable for the
suppression, inaction, waste and mismanagement of the research program.
Throwing the baby out and keeping the dirty bath water will bury the great
promise and hope for wounded heroes and their families in Texas.
Reform in the VA, a promise unfulfilled.
Dr. Van Boven is a neurologist and neuroscientist whose special interests
are in brain imaging and recovery.
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posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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