Senators slammed the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General Wednesday for enabling the agency’s misdeeds instead of acting as an independent watchdog.
The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee voted to require all inspectors general to make their recommendations available to the public, to Congress and whistleblowers.
The move came in response to the refusal of the Veterans Affairs inspector general to share some reports — including several draft reports focused on fraudulent treatment scheduling in the department — with Congress in a timely fashion.
“VA OIG completed a report that uncovered troubling practices at the Tomah VA, and provided recommendations … this report was never reported to Secretary [Robert] McDonald, the Congress, or the public,” said Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.
“The report was requested by a member of Congress and the VA failed to provide it even to the member. … The failure of the VA OIG to appropriately share this report … is simply unacceptable,” she said.
For years, employees of the Tomah, Wis., Veterans Affairs hospital complained that its top doctors were doping veterans with huge quantities of opiates rather than dealing with their issues, and multiple employees who raised the issue were fired, while the alleged wrongdoers went untouched.
The inspector general spent two years looking into it, but when Congress heard the same complaints, the VA didn’t even tell legislators that the issues had already been investigated. Secretary McDonald launched another investigation following outcry by media and Congress, even though the agency had ignored people making identical complaints from less visible platforms.
The committee unanimously approved the amendment, though it still must be approved by the full Congress and signed into law by President Obama.
On Tuesday, the House Veterans Affairs Committee also slammed the VA inspector general, which is supposed to be its chief ally in ensuring that the agency is well-run, for refusing to even name employees who it found deliberately violated the law in how they spent $93 million.
“It is also disturbing that the two VA employees directly responsible for these activities were allowed to retire with full benefits, while the inspector general refused to name them in its report,” chairman Jeff Miller told FedScoop. “The IG owes the public an explanation regarding why no charges were filed and why it is protecting the identity of the employees at the heart of this illegal activity.”
