Chairman expresses concern over VA’s implementation of employee accountability process

The chairman of the House committee overseeing the Department of Veterans Affairs said Tuesday that the agency is not properly holding incompetent employees accountable.

The VA announced this week that it will fire four senior executives in light of the long wait times many veterans endured for medical care. Those executives include the directors of three local VA healthcare systems in Pennsylvania, Alabama and Georgia, as well as the department’s deputy chief procurement director.

{mosads}House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) said he was “concerned” that the way the VA has implemented the reform bill passed by Congress earlier this year allowed embattled employees to avoid consequences. He said an added appeals process has given VA employees advance notice of potential firings, therefore offering them an opportunity to retire or find new jobs before facing any punishment. 

“By creating an added appeals process in which VA employees are given advance notice of the department’s plans to fire them, VA appears to be giving failing executives an opportunity to quit, retire or find new jobs without consequence – something we have already seen happen in recent weeks,” Miller said.

Miller said that the VA and Congress should work together to modify the law if the department finds it is unable to hold employees accountable.

“If any current laws or regulations are impeding the department’s ability to swiftly hold employees accountable, VA leaders must work with Congress so those laws and regulations can be changed,” Miller said. “This is the only way veterans and families struck by the VA scandal can get the closure they deserve.”

In a statement, VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson maintained that the department is acting in line with the reform law.

“Recently, VA announced disciplinary actions against four individuals, consistent with the law that Congress just passed.  If Congress wants VA to implement a different law, it should pass one,” Gibson said. “Until then, VA will use the authority it has been given fully and responsibly to protect the health, safety, and well-being of our nation’s veterans while at the same time ensuring that disciplinary actions are based on the best possible evidence from entities such as the Inspector General, the Office of Special Counsel, and the Justice Department so that these actions stick.”

– This story was updated at 9:33 p.m.