Executives with the Department of Veterans Affairs together netted nearly $2 million in taxpayer money by exploiting a benefits program that pays to relocate top officials at the VA.
A pair of officials created and then accepted jobs for themselves in other cities, allowing them to pocket thousands of dollars after the VA bought their houses at inflated values and paid their moving expenses, according to a report made public Monday by the agency’s inspector general.
Both officials stepped into jobs that entailed fewer duties, but both maintained their six-figure salaries nonetheless, the watchdog found.
What’s more, the Veterans Benefit Administration used the relocation program — intended to ease the transition for officials who had to move because of work — to lavish higher pay on top executives.
Twenty-one of 23 reassignment cases reviewed by the inspector general involved a salary hike.
For example, one executive, Diana Rubens, improperly earned more than $288,000 in taxpayer money to relocate for Philadelphia. Her benefits included a generous payment for alcoholic drinks, which the agency watchdog questioned.
In Rubens’ case, the VA reportedly tapped a relocation firm to purchase Rubens’ Alexandria, Va. home above market value and sell it at a loss.
Several other VA officials were improperly paid “incentives” totaling $140,000 to fill job vacancies that had never even been announced despite the fact that such payments are supposed to be reserved for positions that the agency finds difficult to fill.
The inspector general concluded the Veterans Benefit Administration had used the relocation program “inappropriately,” lining the pockets of executives instead of simply moving employees.
