VA gave 156,000 employees $142 million in bonuses in 2014
WashingtonExaminer: The Department of Veterans Affairs VA shelled out more than $142 million in performance bonuses in 2014, the same year that the VA’s healthcare scandal exploded and revealed the VA was systematically denying veterans access to health care.
The average individual payout was over $900 for the thousands of employees. A total of 156,000 VA workers qualified for bonuses as a result of being rated them “fully successful” or higher at carrying out their responsibilities last year, including officials at delay-prone hospitals. But those ratings were later found to be inflated, as the vast majority of workers were getting rated highly enough to get a bonus.
More than 325 were compensated with $5,000 to $13,000 in year-end bonuses, according to data given to the Washington Examiner by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
Before he resigned, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said he’d stop bonuses at the troubled agency. But in the summer of 2014, Congress approved legislation allowing the agency to hand out up to $360 million in bonuses each year.
House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said the bonus awards are part of a “disturbing trend” of rewarding workers even when they haven’t earned it.
“VA loves to tout its bonus program as a way to attract and retain the best and brightest employees,” Miller wrote. “Unfortunately, often times the employees VA rewards with thousands in taxpayer-funded bonuses are not the type of people the department should be interested in attracting or retaining.”
In the current Congress, the House has passed a number of bills that include language to rein in the department until better results are obtained, including recouping bonuses paid to employees, changing the cap on bonuses from $360 million to $300 million, and limiting senior-level bonuses to $2 million per year.
The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is currently considering three of the House-approved bills.
“Rewarding failure only breeds more failure. Until VA leaders learn this important lesson and make a commitment to supporting real accountability at the department, efforts to reform VA are doomed to fail,” said Miller.
*** Some other truths about the VA: 300,000 Veterans Die Waiting
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In a Fox 17 Waste Watch investigation, government findings finally confirm reports you’ve seen on Fox 17 News about US veterans dying while waiting for healthcare through the VA.
To make matters worse, the number of those who have died while waiting for this care is six times higher than originally estimated.
Even with an increase in funding, the VA’s Office of Inspector General is calling for an overhaul.
Midstate veteran David Jones says he’s among the more than 800,000 veterans whose file is stuck in a “pending” status.
Jones says, “People are trying to get well, they’re trying to get benefits and it’s next to impossible.”
Jones is unable to get the care he needs because his application to the Veterans Health Administration’s Health Eligibility Center is backlogged in its Enrollment System.
This VA Office of Inspector General report confirms that not all of these applicants are for veterans actively seeking enrollment in VA health care.
It says the applications of these veterans have been “inactive” for years and more than 300,000 veterans died during this time.
Congressman Diane Black (R-TN, 6th District) says, “I was surprised. I thought we’d see a different number than what we did.”
Since reports of this VA issue initially surfaced about two years ago, the President has named a new head of the agency. Congress has approved for VA Secretary Robert McDonald to fire employees not doing their jobs.
The agency’s data system has changed and it’s received a 5.5 percent budget increase with the President allocating more than $168-billion dollars to the VA in his 2016 budget. Fox 17 News has also found this OIG report calls out VA employees for incorrectly marking unprocessed applications as “completed” and may have deleted more than 10-thousand transactions from its system.
The government’s Human Resources Office and General Council are now determining if administrative action should be taken against any senior officials in the Veterans Health Administration or Office of Information and Technology.
Fox 17 News will continue bringing you updates on this developing story.
