Lawmakers are well aware of the poor performance of the new VA secretary and subpoenas are flying. Contention is real and valid.
The Inspector General has submitted several reports and yet no one heeded his alarming call to action.
He discloses his repeated efforts to raise his concerns with other senior officials at the agency but says he was consistently ignored. He also accuses top agency officials of deceiving Congress when they were asked about questionable practices.
When an Inspector General investigates government agencies and finds tangible evidence of malfeasance and fraud, then sounds the alarm with written reports and no one reads them or takes action, fire them and turn them over to the FBI and Justice for prison sentences. This is especially necessary at the Veterans Administration where the health safety is tantamount to anything else in government based on historical contracts with service members. The government promises to our treasured military have been broken for years and the scandals are not solved. General Shinseki and Robert McDonald, both secretaries of the VA have failed, sadly failed.
“Doors are swung wide open for fraud, waste and abuse,” he writes in the March memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post. He adds, “I can state without reservation that VA has and continues to waste millions of dollars by paying excessive prices for goods and services due to breaches of Federal laws.”
“These unlawful acts may potentially result in serious harm or death to America’s veterans,” Frye wrote. “Collectively, I believe they serve to decay the entire VA health-care system.”
9 big takeaways from memo accusing VA of making a ‘mockery’ of spending rules
In March, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ senior procurement official, Jan R. Frye, sent a memo to Secretary Robert McDonald accusing other agency leaders of “gross mismanagement.” In the 35-page document, he describes a culture of “lawlessness and chaos” at the Veterans Health Administration, the massive health-care system for 8.7 million veterans.
Frye says the department has been spending at least $6 billion annually in violation of federal contracting rules. Here are nine major points from his memo:
- From the document:
What he’s saying: Frye says veterans are at risk if the government does not have contracts for private medical care and something goes wrong.
- From the document:
What he’s saying: VA is spending billions of dollars a year on medical care and supplies without contracts, but the public has no way to see how taxpayers’ money is being spent, Frye says.
- From the document:
What he’s saying: Top VA officials are ignoring the large discrepancy between authorized spending on medical care and supplies and spending that is done improperly, Frye says.
- From the document:
What he’s saying: VA has failed to hold anyone accountable for the improprieties he cites, or put contracts in place once officials realized they weren’t negotiated properly, Frye says.
- From the document:
What he’s saying: Frye says senior VA leaders must be held accountable for the problems with purchase cards he cites.
- From the document:
What he’s saying: Frye says he analyzed purchase card data from the Veterans Health Administration and found improprieties.
- From the document:
What he’s saying: The purchase card program lacks oversight, Frye says.
- From the document:
What he’s saying: Frye says he has learned from the National Acquisition Center that employees at the Veterans Health Administration are buying thousands of medical supplies in off-the-shelf transactions, without competition.
- From the document:
What he’s saying: Frye tells McDonald that reforming VA will be challenging unless basic contracting problems are addressed.
