A top official in the Department of Veterans Affairs pressured a government contractor — and later, her own underlings — to hire a friend, used her influenced to help hire other friends and exploited “an inappropriate personal relationship” with her boss to get a cozy office in Florida and be shuttled back and forth at taxpayers’ expense, a scathing internal review has found.
In a separate audit, the VA’s inspector general also laid bare $24 million in “questionable” bonuses to employees, including family members and friends of one employee whom auditors accused of behaving “as if she was given a blank checkbook.”
The audits of the department’s technology section are scathing. They accuse the deputy assistant secretary for information protection of risk management, Katherine Martinez, of cronyism and abuse of authority. Auditors say she pressured a prospective contractor to give a job to a friend of hers. After the friend was given a job, Martinez provided inside information to the contractor to help them make a better proposal. She then awarded the contract to her friend’s new company.
Auditors also say that she convinced her boss, Robert Howard — then the assistant secretary for information and technology × “to move her duty station to Florida even though she spent almost 60 percent of her time” in D.C.
Her 22 flights from Florida to D.C. cost taxpayers $37,000. Martinez and Howard had the “inappropriate relationship,” auditors said.
Howard has since left the VA, but Martinez remains on the job.
VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts sent an e-mail statement Thursday saying that officials in her agency “are extremely concerned” with the internal reviews’ findings and are “aggressively pursuing a thorough review of the situation.”
Auditors also said that Jennifer Duncan — the “blank checkbook” woman — handed out bonuses for her cronies and relatives in the bureaucracy, including about $140,000 in improper tuition assistance to relatives and friends. Duncan also gave herself a $60,000 bonus, auditors concluded.
Veterans of Foreign Wars spokesman Joe Davis said the allegations were shocking and that he hopes the VA will not only fire employees, but also attempt to recover some of its losses in court.
“The VA needs to clean house on abuse,” he said.
