As veterans await checks, VA workers get $24M bonuses

WASHINGTON – Outside the Veterans Affairs Department, severely wounded veterans have faced financial hardship waiting for their first disability payment. Inside, money has been flowing in the form of $24 million in bonuses.

In scathing reports this week, the VA's inspector general said thousands of technology office employees at the VA received the bonuses over a two-year period, some under questionable circumstances. It also detailed abuses ranging from nepotism to an inappropriate relationship between two VA employees.

The inspector general accused one recently retired VA official of acting "as if she was given a blank checkbook" as awards and bonuses were distributed to employees of the Office of Information and Technology in 2007 and 2008. In some cases the justification for the bonuses was inadequate or questionable, the IG said.

The official, Jennifer S. Duncan, also engaged in nepotism and got $60,000 in bonuses herself, the IG said. In addition, managers improperly authorized college tuition payments for VA employees, some of whom were Duncan's family members and friends. That cost taxpayers nearly $140,000.

Separately, a technology office employee became involved in an "inappropriate personal relationship" with a high-level VA official. The technology office employee flew 22 times from Florida to Washington, where the VA official lived. That travel cost $37,000.

Yahoo News Link


This BS NEPOTISM needs to end. Where is the oversight? How can the goverment demand people to use money wisely when they have never been able to do it themselves?

GOD FORBID MONEY SHOULD GO TO SOMEONE WHO RISKED THEIR LIVES TO DESERVE IT................



[edit on 21-8-2009 by drsmooth23]

I hope the troops serving abroad get to hear about this, i wonder how keen they will be to keep fighting when see how they'll get treated should they return injured.

Where is the secretary of Defence in all this, surely he should step in and say something?

Then again, he's probably just as bad like the rest of them.

CX.

reply to post by CX




I use to be in the Army; I was wounded and got out of it. It took me a year to get on here and I have a 50% rating. And I have seen friends and family of employees of VA staff get hired before a vet does.... It is common practice in VA and DOD.... Before I begin to raise a stink about it, I have to wait for my one year probie to end-) then it’s on.

Also it should be noted that all federal agencies are like this..... and not to turn into a health care debate but do you really want this type of behavior bureaucrats dictating your health insurance?


[edit on 21-8-2009 by poedxsoldiervet]

A relative of mine worked at the local VA hospital in my area and some time after I got back from Desert Storm and out of the Army, he told me that I needed to at least go check in at the VA so that I would be in their system. However, he was VERY clear that he couldnt do anything with or for me there, only point me down the hall.

Reading this just brought up that one decent memory that at least I personally know one member there that avoided some of the situations laid out in the OPs article. Not all of the individuals are bad, but being a government run entity, I have no doubt that there are as many bad as good.

I also know a Vietnam Vet that only started getting his benefits 5 years ago. It took them over 30 years to "do what they do" before he saw any benefit from his service in one of the most hostile encounters in our military's history.

To say that they are a poorly run business is a gross understatement.

reply to post by poedxsoldiervet


Thanks, that is my point and has been for along time, this the way government agencies and government programs are run like.

Let the crocks pay themselves first.

And still people thinks that Government nows how to run things.

They are crocks just like private owned entities.

All crocks.

Originally posted by CX
I hope the troops serving abroad get to hear about this, i wonder how keen they will be to keep fighting when see how they'll get treated should they return injured.

Where is the secretary of Defence in all this, surely he should step in and say something?

Then again, he's probably just as bad like the rest of them.

CX.

Like myself, when I was deployed to Saudi Arabia in preparation for Desert Shield/Desert Storm, local veterans railed against the president and railed against the history of mistreatment of our veterans by our government and it fell upon deaf ears. The same thing happens today. Military members often blindly believe that it can't happen to them. All is better. The government is reformed. The past mistreatment of returning war veterans has been addressed, fixed and won't happen again. NOT!

I read this earlier on yahoo.
Makes one sick being a vet.

I hope people pay attention to what this is.

They think they want the Govt to run health care? This is exactly what they would get for a big price on taxes.

They have a hard enough time getting people served at the DMV, what makes anyone think they can handle hospitals? I know thats state and not federal, but you get the point.

What makes me mad about this is there was someone sitting in an office looking at reports and probably knew damn well that there are many vets out there who are bad off and they STILL stuck their grubby greedy paws in the cookie jar.

We seriously need up jack up the penalty for government workers miss-allocating money because they DO have blank check books. this didnt happen this week, its been going on for years, and the real sad thing is this is just one probe in one office in a land where honesty and integrity usually get you nothing but foot prints all over you.

[edit on 21-8-2009 by drsmooth23]

After reading this post my blood pressure just shot into orbit.

It's taken me 20 years to get 70% disability compensation.

Knowing that these V.A. bureaucrats are getting 5 five times my disability in bonuses makes me freakin mad as hell. I can not work. I want to cuss.

Grodlam mother truckers! There I said it!

To add insult to injury... The recent stimulus for Social Security recipients, railroad worker and disabled veterans went out months ago. Guess who was last on the list. Yup....the veterans. Still have not received my check yet. I called and they said it was lost in mail delivery and is back at the treasury waiting redisbursment. Whatever. Seems like they gave my check to one of their employees.

They are there to serve the VETERAN. Period. Not themselves!

Freakin God I'm angry!

I know people waiting years to get their disability benefits instead of blaming it on the load of applicants, they could of used to to hire more workers to process them faster but oh well...

It's like playing the telephone game when you're a kid, by the time anything reaches the lower echelon levels, the message/meaning is distorted: ie: division head: "here's a checkbook to make the necessary purchases w/o government credit cards. team supervisor: "here's a checkbook"

My thoughts on the matter.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

My mother works as a researcher at my local VA. She says that everyone other than the administration are veterans in need of jobs. VA never fires these people and only employs more.

People are just greedy, simple as that.

Originally posted by CX
I hope the troops serving abroad get to hear about this, i wonder how keen they will be to keep fighting when see how they'll get treated should they return injured.

Where is the secretary of Defence in all this, surely he should step in and say something?

Then again, he's probably just as bad like the rest of them.

CX.

i agree this is way wak but the Secretary of Defense has no control over the VA (Department of Defense vs. Department of Veterans Affairs)...instead the Secretary of Veterans Affairs should step in and probably the President himself

[edit on 8/21/2009 by blitz666]

No surprises there. According to Obama, it will take years to fix the VA.

www.militarytimes.com...

But that's because little things like this are happening:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Yeah, he's really concerned about the homeless vets, but an ass hat in his administration is doing things like this.

I work for the VA in a clinical capacity. Just as die_another_day pointed out almost half of the employees at any VA are veterans, and pretty much cannot be fired. My Father is a veteran, and I would have him come to my facility were he sick. We run a very clean tight ship here, but not all VAs are this way. Just exactly like not all private hospitals are up to par either. Go read the JCAHO national reports that all private hospitals must answer to. The VA voluntarily submits to JCAHO inspection even though only the OIG has any authority over them. Also notice that this is the OIG, the VAs governing body voluntarily making these offenses known. When is the last time your local private hospital said "Oh, by the way, we caught some of our people screwing you, but we've stopped them now."? There is no more corruption in the VA than in any other organization. The VAs ethical commitees however are ruthlessly honest in exposing corruption when found which is far more than can be said of private hospitals.
What happened was wrong, no doubt. The system isn't perfect, and I don't believe it should be the model for national health care. The government needs to keep their hands off our health choices, but using this incident as an example of how EVERYONE in the VA system behaves is absolutely inaccurate. I work with some of the most caring, devoted people on the planet, and they focus on veterans.

Hi, this is my first post on this site. I am a VA employee, an air conditioning mechanic at a VA in CT. The report is true but barely scratches the real going ons with management. Us trade workers, the people behind the scene who try to keep the facility running are treated like dirt and come bonus time have been ignored while management stills the bank. Corruption (having outside contractors doing work at the people in charge private homes and billing it through an on going project) has been happening for almost 2 decades. The things I have seen will make your head spin.

There is something very wrong here, not just from a moral and ethical standpoint but also from the sociopolitical perspective. We need to be able to trust our national institutions, that when our soldiers fight for our country (viewpoints on the validity of our recent wars aside) that they receive the very best in support, during and after their tours.

We need a real revolution to purge the corruption of capital hill. A non-violent revolution. All of us should stand for our local elections and garner a movement of real people to combat the corruption of politics today.

reply to post by abrown5200a


As abrown and Binder said, please don't paint either all VAs or all employees within a VA with the same broad brush. I work in a VA, but not for the VA. I see some employees doing their best and working hard, and I see others that just seem to be putting in time.

reply to post by drsmooth23


Popped my head in here just to say it is bullsht and I am appalled.
As an injured veteran myself, I am disgusted. yadda yadda yadda.

Although I am guaranteed 100% medical benefits by the Government, I refuse it.
Not to try and proclaim moral superiority or anything. I just despise the Government and I refuse their assitance.
In anything. They are a leach. They offer a coupon with one hand while the other hand is held behind back ready to lob a #pie at your face.

So yeah. Damn the man.

Originally posted by die_another_day
My mother works as a researcher at my local VA. She says that everyone other than the administration are veterans in need of jobs. VA never fires these people and only employs more.

People are just greedy, simple as that.

I am 100% for The VA hiring veterans to help process the Influx of medically needy idividuals that keep accruing from all these dadblasted seemingly useless skirmishes