Richard J. Griffin, the Department of Veterans Affairs main watchdog against corruption, waste and manipulation is a man who was forced out of his position at the State Department in disgrace after failing to properly oversee Blackwater security guards.
Griffin resigned as the State Department’s security chief in November 2007 amidst an outcry that he had neglected to properly supervise the defense contractor’s guards, who killed 14 Iraqi civilians.
Now Griffin leads the VA Office of the Inspector General, the internal watchdog for the massive department. The office has been accused of protecting the agency from criticism rather than asking hard questions, including softening the findings of its investigations, repeatedly bungling straightforward inquiries into wrongdoing, and hiding its results from Congress.
Last week, Blackwater guards were sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for the 14 killings and 17 other shootings. Blackwater Worldwide renamed itself after a flood of negative media coverage of what appeared to be the unprovoked killing of Iraqi civilians by American contract security guards during the chaos of war.
Inspector general spokeswoman Joanne Moffett said in an email that “Mr. Griffin believes it is inappropriate to comment on Blackwater while the verdicts involving Blackwater personnel may be subject to further judicial review.” She described his departure from State as “voluntary.”
The Washington Post reported in 2007 that “[t]he State Department’s security chief was forced to resign yesterday after a critical review found that his office had failed to adequately supervise private contractors protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq.
“A high-level panel [then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice] appointed to review the Iraq operation recommended Griffin’s departure along with the other changes, according to State Department sources.
“Griffin’s departure was widely seen as a positive move within the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS), where many senior agents have expressed growing concern over the dependence on and lack of supervision of private contractors.”
Just months after his role in the Blackwater incident was in major newspapers, and as the long-running scandal hit its peak, Griffin was hired at Veterans Affairs as deputy inspector general by then-inspector general George Opfer. The two men were part of a tight-knit community of former Secret Service guards.
In 2013, Opfer resigned, with Griffin being elevated to acting inspector general.
President Obama has not nominated a new designated inspector general, even though vacancies are known to reduce accountability, the department has had a vacancy for an unusually long time, and it is perhaps the most in need of the close scrutiny among all federal departments and agencies.
Agencies are forbidden from having only an acting inspector general for too long, but Veterans Affairs got around that by changing Griffin’s title from acting inspector general back to deputy, while leaving the head role empty.
“Interim IGs are more likely to become lapdogs of an administration,” said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif. “They are seen as temporary occupants of their offices without a genuine mandate from the administration and Congress.”
Griffin’s office has not just failed to investigate malfeasance at Veterans Affairs, it has at times actively enabled it, veterans groups and congressmen say.
Hospital worker Terrance Peterson complained to the inspector about delays in veterans getting care, hoping officials could put a stop to it. But then the inspector general’s office instead notified Peterson’s supervisors of his actions. The inspector general’s office then attempted to convince federal prosecutors to charge Peterson with a crime.
“Any criminal investigation conducted into threats by Mr. Peterson was based on a complaint submitted by a third party,” Moffett said.
In another example, Griffin’s office spent two years investigating the Tomah, Wisc., VA hospital after receiving a myriad of complaints, but never released any findings. A subsequent internal clinical review needed only weeks to establish that problems were real.
“The problems surrounding the Tomah [medical center] have led veterans and VA employees to question not only the leadership at the facility but at the VA Office of Inspector General,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., wrote in a letter strongly encouraging Obama to appoint a permanent inspector general.
The inspector general has refused to release many of its reports to anyone but the agency itself, even to members of Congress. After a backlash because of the Tomah review, it began posting more of them online.
The department has a history of taking people with checkered records and putting them in charge of cleaning up problems, as well as setting up accountability panels that are ill-equipped to succeed.
When the department’s Denver hospital project went $1 billion over its construction budget, officials assembled an investigative panel whose members had no construction knowledge.
The investigative panel looking into Tomah is led by a VA employee who herself misled Congress and oversaw delays and paperwork manipulation.
In Phoenix, the epicenter of a major wait-time manipulation scandal, the investigative panel had to be halted because of a conflict of interest that might have kept one of its members from supporting disciplinary accountability.
