| THE VA: TEAR IT
DOWN BRICK BY BRICK -- PART 8
The latest commentary from Kurt
Priessman is titled, "The Hub and Spokes."
| Editor's
Note from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... It's time
for this series to be written. I do not agree with all
of Kurt's ideas about the VA, but, as a former government
employee with many years of service, Kurt knows the system
inside-out. The proposals in his commentaries should
be open to discussion. You may comment at the bottom
of the page. Kurt's
bio and archive of articles can be found here. |
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THE VA: TEAR IT DOWN BRICK BY
BRICK -- PART 8
The Hub and Spokes
by Kurt Priessman
If the top-level management is the reason the Department of
Veterans Affairs (DVA) is broken, do we really expect mid-level
supervision and workers not to be problematic? Are appearances
not everything? The article looks at what we see.
In the last
year, the Department has imploded and a great many things
 have
become known concerning the DVA. On June 20, 2008, the previous
Secretary (James
Peake) was providing what veterans considered an “out of both
sides of your mouth” statement to the Congress concerning
performing illegal research and failing to warn veterans of the
dangers of the anti-smoking drug
Chantix. Do not forget from whom the good Secretary got it;
the company, Pfizer, for whom his former boss (Anthony
J. Principi) works, on September 3, 2009, admitted guilt and
paid a $2.3 billion fine for
fraud.
About that
same time, on June 30, 2008, Congress passed the Post 9/11 GI Bill
into law. Thirteen months later, the Veterans Benefits
Administration (VBA) could not produce the expected results
promised to Congress by the Department, several times. The VBA
has delayed
Veterans’ payments for up to 10 weeks, leaving veterans
wondering how they will make mortgage and rent payments.
Admiral
Patrick W. Dunne, nominated and approved to be Under Secretary
for Benefits on September 23, 2008, and Mr. Michael Walcoff,
Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits have had to testify before the
House Committee on
shredding or hiding documents, date-switching, an
ever-growing backlog, and the effectiveness of
continuing education training always coming up with
ever-bigger spin stories. VA witnesses spout everything is
“fixed”, “not indicative of the general health of the VBA system”,
or euphemisms about “how much they care for our veterans”.
In fact, it is
extremely doubtful they have done anything to fix these problems.
His
counterpart in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA),
Dr. Michael Kussman (more
here) had to resign because after almost ten years and $70
million spent, there was no viable RSA (scheduling) application
that was deployable. As it turned out from the
VAOIG Report, the Chief at the Office of Information and
Technology (OI&T) had violated a number of rules; such as misuse
of position, abuse of authority, and prohibited personnel
practices, as had the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information
Protection and Risk Management and the Associate Deputy Assistant
Secretary. In addition, the Deputy Assistant Secretary had failed
to fulfill her duties as the Contracting Officer’s Technical
Representative (COTR). It is not hard to see why things were not
going well in OI&T.
These scandals
continue week after week, month after month, year after year.
Lack of timely treatment for TBI/PTSD, mounting
suicide rates hidden by VA officials, mistreatment of veterans
with prostate cancer, exposure of veterans to hepatitis B, C, and
AIDS, and numerous VAOIG
reports documenting substandard healthcare in multiple specialties
in VA Medical Centers across the country. Not
one week goes by without a finding of
significant problems in what the VA infamously calls “healthcare
second to none”. That might be true if healthcare standards were
adhered to instead of the finding that “The failure of medical
facilities to comply on such a large scale with repeated alerts
and directives suggests fundamental defects in organizational
structure.”1
Of course, when the Feds settle cases for $990,000, or have
their
Chief of Patient Safety say they cannot prove it was from the
VA, it does not help inspire confidence. In 2008, an
emergency room turned away a veteran having a heart attack and
most recently, another failed to
diagnose a stroke.
The determined
effort to appeal pro-veteran decisions in the courts also does not
speak well for the Department. It is apparent that Office of the
General Counsel (OGC) lawyers are so involved in review of the
promulgation of Title 38 and M21-1MR that they live in court
defending the indefensible. There is no count of cases won and
lost, but of recent note are
Cushman v Shinseki,
Pousson v Shinseki, and
Haas v Peake. These cases show that fundamentally, the
Department goes out of its way to deny veterans due process,
stoops to the lowest legal tricks, and to interpret law in
contradiction to its mission and vision. This from an
organization meant to assist veterans. The author could bring up
countless things about each of the Administrations making up the
DVA. The point is it the attitude that must be changed or tear it
down.
In addition,
what of service center managers at Regional Offices and field
offices? None escapes scandal, abuse of authority, prejudicial
and arbitrary personnel practices and on and on. With twenty-one
outstanding EEO cases, the SCM got a $50,000 bonus. A SCM cannot
solve the parking problem at her VAMC; does that mean she only got
a $48,000 bonus? Amnesties for criminal activity
With the
recent news from another southern Regional Office, where it is
certain criminal activity has taken place given the letter
the widow received from an employee there, who believes the
testimony of anyone in the DVA.
This website’s
owner (Larry Scott) asks simply; “What's to prevent VBA employees
from 'losing' vital documents by hiding, misfiling or removing
them from the premises?” The answer unfortunately is, absolutely
nothing.
FAST Letter 08-41, Special Temporary Procedures in Response to
October 2008 Records Incident needs to be extended and an outside
agency investigate the VBA. By the looks of it, Mr. Mayes never
followed up or knew the ROs would not do what the review called
for to insure compliance with his procedures. How many
claims have been lost or never been answered?
This time no
one should accept some insinuation that this was a few random bad
employees, it must include supervisors and the SCM, there should
be no amnesty, the Attorney General should prosecute the SCMs,
their Deputies, and anyone else involved for fraud and all other
applicable statutes.
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This article is ©2009 by Kurt
Priessman and is provided exclusively to VA Watchdog dot Org.
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TOPICS:
veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs,
Kurt Priessman, THE VA: TEAR IT DOWN BRICK BY BRICK
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