A congressional panel was told late Monday that a “culture of retaliation and intimidation” is so pervasive within the Department of Veterans Affairs that the Pentagon has half as many whistle-blowers from a workforce that is twice as big.
Carolyn Lerner, head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, told the House Committee on Veterans Affairs’ subcommittee on oversight and investigations that her agency receives twice as many whistle-blower complaints from VA than the Department of Defense even though the Pentagon has double the number of civil service employees.
She was one of a parade of witnesses describing VA as a place where employees who see wrongdoing are too often afraid to blow the whistle for fear of being penalized by their bosses.
Dr. Christian Head, head and neck surgeon in the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, told the committee he had been stripped of his office since testifying there about just such retaliation in July 2014.
Head said VA officials typically employed the same three tactics when lashing out at whistleblowers:
“First, they take the whistleblower, and they isolate them,” Head said. “Second, they defame them. Third, they push them out.”
Meghan Flanz, director of the VA’s Office of Veterans Affairs, said just three cases of whistle-blower retaliation had resulted in disciplinary action against VA officials since her office was opened in July 2014. Hundreds more have languished before VA investigators and the Office of Special Counsel, she said.
Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., cited as an example a VA employee who was able to hold onto his job for a year and a half after taking a recovering veteran to a crack house.
Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., pressed Flanz on why more VA officials had not faced termination for retaliating against whistle-blowers.
“If you want to send a message that wrongdoers are going to be held accountable, you actually have to hold at least accountable,” Rice said.
Lerner said the special counsel is on track to help nearly twice as many VA whistle-blowers in 2015 as it did last year.
According to a memo made public April 9, the Office of Special Counsel is presently probing 110 cases in which whistleblowers in the VA have alleged retaliation.
Several subcommittee members were angered when Flanz said the increasing number of whistleblowers meant more felt “comfortable coming forward.”
“I don’t know if they feel comfortable,” said Rep, Mike Coffman, R-Colo. “I think they’re willing to take a risk.”
Coffman called for firing of VA employees who try to suppress whistle-sblowers.
“It is very simple, if you retaliate against or stifle employees who are trying to improve VA for our nation’s veterans, you should not be working for VA, and you certainly should not receive a bonus for your despicable actions,” he said.
While Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., introduced the VA Retaliation Prevention Act in January, but agency officials have opposed the legislation on the grounds that it would spawn “unintended consequences.”
