A top Senate Democrat is pressing the Justice Department to investigate “unethical” behavior at the Veterans Affairs Department that put favors for executives ahead of veterans, and called on Justice to bring criminal charges.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, asking her to look into a VA inspector general report released last month on the misuse of funds that amounted to nearly $2 million.
“This scheme to defraud taxpayers and manipulate the system is, unfortunately, only the latest example of unacceptable misconduct by VA employees,” wrote the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. “This behavior is unacceptable for any federal employee, but it is particularly egregious in this case because it evinces a mindset that puts veterans last.”
“The very same mindset led over the last two years to VA employees manipulating wait time data for medical appointments, in order to receive employee bonus payments,” Blumenthal wrote.
The report released on Sept. 28 found that the Veterans Benefit Administration “inappropriately” spent about $1.8 million of taxpayers’ money to relocate 23 top officials at the VA to new jobs and locations. Twenty-one resulted in pay hikes.
The IG report determined that the relocations were used “as a means to justify annual salary increases” of senior managers.
“Although VAOIG has found evidence indicating criminal activity in a number of their recent investigations,” wrote Blumenthal, “federal prosecutors have declined to pursue the vast majority of cases.”
“Veterans deserve the accountability that can only come from DOJ acting upon the evidence and information it has now received.”
