Possible prosecutions are stalling efforts to fire top executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary Robert McDonald said Thursday in defending the pace at which senior managers have been disciplined for falsifying patient wait-time records.
Only one member of the Senior Executive Service, the top rung of the ladder for federal career civil service managers, has been fired since the scandal over bogus appointment logs broke in April.
In June, the Office of Special Counsel also blasted the VA for exhibiting a pattern of retaliation against whistleblowers, a firing offense for managers engaged in the practice.
Yet the only senior executive fired under a new law passed in the wake of the revelations is a former health network administrator in Alabama.
Speaking to a breakfast gathering of reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, McDonald said he has held off on some disciplinary actions to allow the Department of Justice, the FBI and the VA inspector general time to complete criminal investigations.
He dismissed media reports that the DOJ does not object to firing Sharon Helman, former director of the VA hospital in Phoenix where the scandal began.
“We are moving as aggressively and expeditiously as possible,” McDonald said. “The FBI is involved in many of these investigations, the Department of Justice and the inspector general. And as all of that evidentiary material is created it is passed on to us if they decide not to do criminal prosecution. Criminal prosecution has the priority and then the administrative disciplinary action follows.”
A Justice Department lawyer notified the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs this week that it is not blocking the termination of Helman, who has been on paid administrative leave since May.
“The Department of Justice takes no position concerning whether the employment matters you mention below should proceed or be stayed,” DOJ attorney Wintta Woldemariam wrote in a Nov. 3 email about Helman to the committee’s deputy staff director, Mike Brinck.
McDonald refused to say whether DOJ asked him not to fire Helman. He dismissed earlier media reports on the DOJ’s position as coming from “an unnamed source at the House committee talking about an unnamed source at the Justice Department.”
DOJ spokesman Peter Carr refused to comment Monday.
The VA has been blasted for moving too slowly to fire the top managers responsible for the nationwide falsification of patient appointment lists to hide long delays in delivering care.
Allegations of the practice at the Phoenix hospital run by Helman were publicly disclosed in April by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House veterans’ committee. That triggered a nationwide investigation by the VA inspector general.
In May, the IG issued a report confirming that the use of bogus appointment lists was “systemic,” deliberate and potentially criminal. McDonald’s predecessor, Eric Shinseki, resigned a few days after that report was released.
The new law signed in August gave the VA secretary more power to fire or discipline senior executives for misconduct or poor performance.
But VA has proposed firing only four people under the new law. Two of them retired and one remains on the payroll. The lone termination was James Talton, former director of the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System.
Helman was proposed for termination under the old law, but her firing is still on hold. Keeping her on the payroll is a waste of taxpayer money and sends the wrong signal from an agency seeking to rebuild its credibility, Miller said after receiving Woldemariam’s email Monday.
“If VA has the evidence needed to fire Sharon Helman, which it says it does, it should fire her,” Miller said. “Keeping Helman and other Phoenix executives on the payroll when the department wants to fire them is nothing more than a waste of taxpayer dollars. The Department of Justice has already said it doesn’t mind if Helman is fired, so VA’s excuses as to why taxpayers must continue to pay her nearly $170,000 a year for doing nothing are simply hot air.”
McDonald said he is pursuing disciplinary cases against more than 40 people, mostly senior executives.
However, a list of proposed disciplinary cases the VA sent to the House veterans’ committee includes only four top-level positions. Three of those executives are medical center directors. One was removed, one retired and the third was recommended for a 30-day suspension, which is pending.
The highest-ranking executive on the list appears to be a regional network director, who received an “admonishment.”
No names are listed with the job titles.
Other job titles among the 44 cases are claims assistant, health aide, medical supply technician, medical clerk and mail clerk. Ten of the people on the list are nurses.
Of the employees recommended for punishment, 15 were proposed for removal. Nine employees were recommended for suspension, five of them for fewer than 14 days. Other recommended punishments include admonishment or demotion.
Eight people on the list were ultimately removed, including one probationary employee.
In addition to those cases, McDonald said he is “tracking for potential separation” about 2,000 cases throughout the VA bureaucracy.
The new law only shortened the appeal time for a senior executive who is fired, McDonald said. It did not relieve the agency of its obligation to allow a targeted employee due process to respond to the charges, he said.
“We’ve got to make sure whatever action we take sticks, is fair, and that on appeal we are successful,” McDonald said.
McDonald’s assessment of the new law differs from the one President Obama gave when he signed it in August.
“Now, finally, we’re giving the VA secretary more authority to hold people accountable,” Obama said at the bill-signing ceremony. “We’ve got to give Bob the authority so that he can move quickly to remove senior executives who fail to meet the standards of conduct and competence that the American people demand.”
