Draining the VA Swamp

Draining the VA Swamp

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President Trump signed a new EO [Executive Order] entitled 

"Improving Accountability and Whistleblower Protection"

at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

This EO addresses a portion of the myriad of bureaucratic issues, and particularly the widespread and embedded corruption documented and reported on for the past eight years, and historically, with no action taken by Congress to reform these problems.

The EO addresses endemic problems in the 150+ VA hospitals throughout the country, many of which have been cited for corruption, incompetent or belligerent staffs, and generally, a failure to provide treatment and support for Veterans.  It also addresses the unwieldy and seemingly ineffective VA bureaucracy which routinely delays and denies legitimate claims because the claims reps simply don't feel like doing their job.  It appears it is much more fun for bureaucrats denying these claims and frustrating Veterans than actually doing their job

VA Waiting List Scandal

One of the biggest opponents of reform in this process has been Senator McCain, but we'll address that issue in a separate blog post as his position on Congressional Committees impacts the Active Military, and importantly, his blocking of data on countless US POWs reportedly alive and officially abandoned in Vietnam.






This EO, to be employed and enforced by the VA Secretary, Dr David Shulkin, will consist of three primary issues:

1)  Creates an office at VA dedicated to "accountability and whistleblower protection", reporting directly to the Director to identify barriers that are "... preventing us from removing employees and people we have identified that should no longer be working at VA".

-- In effect, it's a "You're Fired policy" which would reverse the embedded hatred policy evident in a number of VA regional offices, and at the VA Hospital in Washington, DC where we have witnessed outright hostility by administrative personnel driving Veterans into a rage to force them out of the system -- based on the Veteran's "instability".

    a)  It will also terminate the endless bureaucratic delays by which the VA administrators have created countless barriers to a Veteran claiming benefits.  A personal example involves the VA's demand that we show "documentation of 'BOOTS ON THE GROUND" to claim benefits for Agent Orange, in spite of a four year tour "on the ground" which included a variety of combat medals as well as Vietnam Service medals, and deployment medals.

    b)  Since our Officer Efficiency Reports did not specifically state that we engaged in classified Special Operations in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, VA administrators initially denied benefits.  We requested they obtain our records, and they then sent us a five page document  with the entire content, including VA document number and date redacted.

    c)  Eventually, we overcame much of this bureaucracy, but noted that fellow Veterans without our persistence were left high and dry.  In this process, we spoke with a VA shrink who described a homeless Vet who was denied treatment judged to be crazy because he claimed to have operated in Cambodia; we provided the shrink with a full description of the individual and the classified operation that he worked under -- and he now receives benefits.

    d)  Basically unresolved is the issue of how to guarantee benefits for all combat Vets who operated in covert or classified status since their records do not specifically state [for a reason] where they were operating or when [e.g., Laos, Cambodia, various places in the Middle East and Africa, and on special assignment to deal with Special Weaponry].

22 Suicides per day

   e)  Also yet to be addressed is the massive death toll among Veterans committing suicide, an issue essentially dismissed by the VA, which should be held accountable.

   f)  A footnote, as yet unreported in any detail is the issue of the overworked, understaffed psychiatric doctors and specialists who suffer from overwhelming depression when they are unable to
address the needs of their suicidal patients.
The issue here is that there is a large number of these psychiatrists who themselves commit
suicide when beaten down by an uncaring VA bureaucracy.

  g)  A final issue to examine is what appears to be a VA DEATH PANEL, in which treatment  Veterans is denied or not recommended based on age or severity of illness/injury.  These decisions are made via private contractor consultants who are hired by VA to "... establish claims eligibility"; the "physician" conducting these evaluations are often foreign and have no concept whatever of the Veteran's ailments, and their contract is for simply filling out a VA form.  Among these contractors are Quest and LHI, with which we have had personal experience in this process.

2)    Effective 28 April 2017, the VA will partner with the Department of Health and Human Services to supplement VA medical personnel with medical professionals drawn from the Public Health Service.

3)  An initiative to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse in the VA Department.  

Demoted, but not fired

This initiative follows an 18 month Comey-led FBI investigation which produced no progress in the face of blatant fraud in the VA.

It will be employed and enforced by professionals brought in from both the Private Sector and other components of the government to examine -- with a fine-tooth comb -- major construction contracts, pharmaceutical contracts, track records of questionable health care providers, and administrative delivery of benefits to Veterans.

These professionals will examine the fraudulent contracts which enriched regional directors and hospital administrators, leaving operational equipment and facilities severely lacking.
Some examples found by the new Inspector General so far:

   a)  VA Medical Center in Washington, DC put the 98,000 Veterans it serves at risk stemming from the use of Dirty Equipment, lack of necessary medical supplies, and the possible use of recalled equipment.

   b)  Since 2014, the DC VA had 194 Patient Safety Reports regarding "the unavailability of equipment or supplies."

   c) In June, 2016, surgical staff used expired equipment during a procedure because of "...the lack of an inventory management program".

   d) More than 27,000 items purchased by the facility -- at a cost of more than $150 million -- were unaccounted for as of March, 2017.

e)  The Carl T Hyden VA Medical Center in Phoenix reportedly allowed patients to die while awaiting appointments, while bureaucrats falsified "wait-time" data to collect performance bonuses.  The director of that Center was Sharon Helman, who admitted taking at least $50,000 in contractors' gifts [aka: bribes], was tried, convicted, and placed on two years probation.

Helman accepted these "gifts" from Dennis Lewis, a former VA executive who retired and became a lobbyist, securing millions of dollars in VA contracts from Helman.  Although charged with falsified appointment data, whistleblower retaliation, and falsified conflict-of-interest statements, the Merit System judge dismissed the criminal charges, leaving the US District Judge, Steven Logan, only able to convict/sentence her on the administrative charge.

   f)  In a variety of cases, to include Wisconsin and Texas, administrator violations and corruption have been tied to the deaths of a number of Veterans.


4)  The long range target of this EO is the capacity to hold the three million VA employees and administrators accountable for criminal actions, to include corruption, fraud, negligence, and incompetence -- and to perhaps reform the Civil Service system which provides shelter for these criminals.

We encourage President Trump to fully implement his EO and to pursue all his options.  We quote Jarrett Stepman's American Legislative Exchange Council policy paper.

"By stripping the bureaucratic class of their special protections that few 

other americans enjoy through comprehensive Civil Service reform, 

Trump can fulfill his Inaugural promise, and ensure that when 

the People speak, Washington has to listen!"

DHS Corruption Exposed - UPDATE

Competes well with the best of the Obama Administration's Prevaricators

This Post has been updated (10 May 2019) 

due to breaking news on this scandal

{ https://cis.org/North/Hidden-News-One-Obama-Official-Vindicated-Another-Falls]   }

Evidence released during the trial/conviction of Sonai Patel, DHS IT Manager, included the news she had stolen a data-base managing 150,000 internal investigations, including background investigations on 250,000 DHS employees].  Charles K. Edwards [then Inspector General] is accused of using that data in a contract proposal to his former employers.  

Also revealed are Edwards' efforts to undercut the effectiveness of the DHS (the) Director of USCIS [Citizenship and Immigration Services), Alejandro Mayorkas.

The unanswered question here is what data was passed over during the "telecommuting" between Edwards wife in India and Patel, and how much of that data was transferred to Chinese Intelligence.  Would that have included the numerous FOIA requests -- and data provided regarding on-going investigations regarding Illegals, Child Sex Trafficking, ATF files, Coast Guard intelligence, etc.

Finally, we are reminded of the fact that DHS then had 250,000 employees!
How is it we are short on Border Patrol Police.

OUR ORIGINAL POST APPEARS BELOW.
---------------------------
Click here for related article [Washington Post (Carol D Leonnig)]

It appears there is a spark of journalistic integrity left at the Post.  The referenced article is a masterpiece of investigative journalism, and we trust Congress will begin reading the Post again for such stories rather than using it for litter box filler as they did while Katherine Weymouth controlled the editorial process.

This investigative story reveals corruption at the highest levels of the Department of Homeland Security [DHS], the federal agency charged with pulling all federal law enforcement and intelligence activities into one information sharing and enforcement basket [albeit a bureaucratic goat-rope] with a mere 240,000 employees -- most of whom cannot define their job description.

Charles K Edwards served as the acting Inspector General of DHS from 2011 - 13, but, instead of investigating unethical behavior, became the target of Senate investigators as a result of his own unethical behavior, which included joining the subjects of his investigations for drinks and dinners, and sharing with them confidential reports from whistle-blowers and his investigators.

Ultimately, he asked the targets of these investigations how he should handle the disclosures of their unethical and in some cases, illegal behavior -- after which he altered reports to Congress to the benefit of those being investigated.

Edwards also came under fire for
1) Requiring his staffers to drive him on personal errands
2) Using government personnel to help him write his PhD dissertation
3) Hiring his wife to work for his office -- and to telecommute from India for seven months
4) Retaliating against DHS whistle-blowers.

All these illicit activities occurred while Edwards was Mr obama's nominee for the permanent position of Inspector General.

Putting it mildly, Senator Ron Johnson [R-WI] advised:
"We found that Mr Edwards was a compromised Inspector General.  
Any report generated out of his office would be suspect."

Notably, Edwards resigned his position three days prior to his scheduled appearance before the Senate to respond to their inquiries into his activities.

The Senate bipartisan investigation was initiated following the scandal in Colombia in which Secret Service agents were compromised by hiring prostitutes and revealing sensitive information to them. "Whistle-blowers alleged Edwards ordered them to remove derogatory information implicating a White House staff member; more staff members came forward to allege deletions and delays in other reports."

Three DHS employees who questioned the deletions were put on Administrative Leave; among those was the General Counsel who was forced into another position after being placed on paid Administrative leave for EIGHT MONTHS!

DHS "declined" to provide the emails which related to those reports.
[Note to Senate:  Use a subpoena -- not a request!]

DHS General Counsel John Sandweg

At the request of a DHS official [then-DHS General Counsel John Sandweg], Edwards is alleged to have ordered changes to and delayed release of a report on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] which disclosed complaints that DHS had misled Congress and the public about Secure Communities -- a new program to identify illegal immigrants which has come under considerable scrutiny and criticism.

Edwards repeatedly consulted with Sandweg, then DHS-Director Janet Napolitano's top political advisor and General Counsel, on how to respond to Congressional Committee questions.

One of Edwards' emails to Sandweg included this quote:


"I really need some legal help.  Please help me for the next four months."

[This is the equivalent of a criminal prosecutor asking the defendant for assistance on how to handle the criminal's prosecution.]

Sandweg, according to Fox News, came under Congressional criticism since he had "zero law enforcement experience."  He is a former criminal defense attorney whose clients included murderers, sex offenders, and pedophiles.
His clients included
  1) a man convicted of strangling his girlfriend in front of her 4-year-old child,
  2) an identity theft ring, violent felons who had violated their parole, and
  3) a man accused of multiple counts of sexual assault on a minor.
[This guy made the character of "Just Call Saul" look like a saint!]

Why, former Democratic Presidential nominee, John Edwards who was caught in a series of lies, would have been proud to have had Sandweg as his running mate.

You remember John Edwards.

Liz Edwards; died in 2010

He ran as a Democrat for President on the basis of good teeth, good hair, and the sympathy vote since his wife [Elizabeth Edwards] was dying of cancer; we learned during the campaign that he was cheating on his dying wife with Rielle Hunter [aka: Lisa Jo Druck],  who bore him a child.
 

But, we digress.

Now, Sandweg is a piece of work, but, hold on, there's still more to this story.

The Senate report noted that Charles Edwards conferred on a regular basis with not only Sandweg, but also with Janet Napolitiano's Chief of Staff, Noah Kroloff during the period he was investigating the Secret Service scandal.

Kroloff resigned his position with Napolitano, and is a Partner of Global Security and Intelligence Strategies [GSIS] -- a consulting and advisory firm.
-- Should we ask how many contracts GSIS has with DHS?
-- Would there be a conflict of interest there?
--  Is the Pope Catholic?

The Senate report also disclosed that DHS IG Charles Edwards reclassified a Transportation Security Administration [TSA] report critical of "imaging screening".

The classification was bumped up - inexplicably - from SECRET to TSC [TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION] - an egregious breach of classification authority to prevent almost all but a few in Congress access to the report.

[TS/C is a classification restricted to only the most sensitive intelligence relating to highly technical or restricted methods and sources, and NEVER for a routine report on procedural effectiveness. The SCI access generally requires that an individual undergo a polygraph exam; access requires a lengthy procedure due to the sensitivity of the materials, meaning that only a few Senators and Congresspersons would be eligible for access. (Then-senator obama was never granted a security clearance at all due to the absence of legitimate documents in his personal history).]

Some of you may be uncertain as to the role of an Inspector General [IG].

In essence, the IG is a government [or military] watchdog whose mission is to ensure integrity within the organization.  The IG investigates using special agents/professional investigators and auditors to pursue allegations of wrong-doing, and is expected to provide reports to higher headquarters of his/her findings prior to or during investigations and possibly consequent criminal proceedings.  The President appoints IGs for HUD and the Agency for International Development; all the rest are appointed by the heads of the agencies they serve -- but are essentially approved by the President.

Notably, in this [OBAMA] Administration, most of the IG positions are vacant -- leaving little or no internal review process for whistle-blowers or corruption monitoring.  This vacuum could explain the extraordinary levels of corruption in government agencies in this Administration.

To set your mind at ease with respect to the reports of extraordinary corruption in the DHS, you'll be gratified to know that the new Inspector General is John Roth, whom the Senate confirmed last month [by a simple majority].  He responded to the Senate report of DHS corruption with the words:

"... this report contains valuable insights that my office will be taking into account 

as we move forward with our oversight mission."

Now, for you denizens of California [who gave the US Pelosi, Waters Boxer, and Feinstein], we want to remind you that Janet Napolitino, who headed the DHS during so much of this corruption, is now President of the University of California, and is routinely the subject of protests when she visits the various campuses [to be fair, in one instance at Berkeley, two students did launch a "counter-protest"]. In her new role, controlling your college kids' education, do you feel safer, and aren't you happy your tax dollars are paying her salary?