The VA set out to send a stern disciplinary message to some scammers in the higher levels of its bureaucracy but, well you know, things happen. As Kellie Lunney of Government Executive reports:
An administrative error has forced the Veterans Affairs Department to rescind the punishment for two senior executives who were demoted after the department’s watchdog found they used their positions of authority for personal gain, the VA said on Thursday.
There is a problem, though. It seems, is that:
… the department has to restart the disciplinary process because it failed to provide the two employees with all the information regarding their punishment during the notice period. “During a review of the appeals, agency counsel discovered that, due to an administrative error, one of the five binders of evidence supporting each action had inadvertently been omitted from the materials provided to the employees with their proposed demotion paperwork,” the VA statement said.
In the VA (and, no doubt, much of the rest of Governmentland) delay works two way. Against those who are supposed to get the services and for those who are supposed to provide it.
