Monday, May 7 update: Check out new developments here. [/end update].
Hope Yen's story for the Associated Press about the cash-strapped Veterans Administration handing out large bonuses to senior officials has been published in dozens of news outlets across the country. CNN ran it under the headline, Strained VA hands out five-figure bonuses. The lead:
Months after a politically embarrassing $1 billion shortfall that put veterans' health care in peril, Veterans Affairs officials involved in the foul-up got hefty bonuses ranging up to $33,000.
Congressional leaders on Thursday demanded that the Veterans Affairs secretary explain the hefty bonuses for senior department officials.
Rep. Harry Mitchell, chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs subcommittee on oversight, said he would hold hearings to investigate.
The financial details:
A list obtained by the AP of bonuses to senior career officials in 2006 documents a generous package of more than $3.8 million in payments by a financially strapped agency straining to help care for thousands of injured veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Among those receiving payments were a deputy assistant secretary and several regional directors who crafted the VA's flawed budget for 2005 based on misleading accounting. They received performance payments up to $33,000 each, a figure equal to about 20 percent of their annual salaries.
Also receiving a top bonus was the deputy undersecretary for benefits, who helps manage a disability claims system that has a backlog of cases and delays averaging 177 days in getting benefits to injured veterans.
The bonuses were awarded even after government investigators had determined the VA repeatedly miscalculated -- if not deliberately misled taxpayers -- with questionable methods used to justify Bush administration cuts to health care amid the burgeoning Iraq war.
Annual bonuses to senior VA officials now average more than $16,000 -- the most lucrative in government. All bonuses are proposed by division chiefs, then approved by Nicholson.
Representative Tim Walz's reaction in a statement released this afternoon:
"I was shocked to read the Associated Press article indicating that leaders at the VA chose to award senior political appointees with these enormous bonuses," Walz said. "It wasn't so long ago that the VA was forced to come to Congress to ask for help in closing an unexpected $1 billion shortfall. In the private sector, executives responsible for that type of financial mismanagement would have been replaced, not rewarded."
"I was especially disturbed at reports that a $33,000 bonus went to the administrator responsible for a 637,000 case backlog with a six-month delay in processing. My constituents trapped in that backlog are right to resent this inappropriate use of their tax dollars," said Walz.
This is especially distressing news when we have friends who have had to wait to get in at the VA after they return from service in Iraq. Mitchell, Walz and two colleagues on the Veterans Affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations have sent the folowing letter to VA Secretary Jim Nicholson:
Honorable R. James Nicholson
Secretary
U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20420Dear Mr. Secretary:
As members of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, we write to express our serious concern about the issues raised in today's Associated Press report, "Senior VA officials get big bonuses."
As you know, the Administration's continued refusal to ask for the appropriate funds to care for our veterans has placed serious financial strain on the Department of Veterans Affairs and has severely impacted the level of care our veterans receive. We are troubled that despite these budget shortfalls, the VA still found it appropriate to distribute $3.8 million in bonus payments to high-ranking VA officials. The reported that these bonuses are the "most lucrative" bonuses in the federal government.
It is particularly concerning that the Deputy Undersecretary for Benefits, who is responsible for a claims process that is universally recognized as being extremely backlogged, was among recipients of these controversial bonuses. We do not know how overseeing a backlog of over 637,000 cases with an average 177-day waiting period warrants any suggestion that they are successfully meeting veterans' needs. We wonder if the veterans who continue to wait for their claims to be processed would agree with the VA's decision to award these lucrative bonuses.
Just last year, the Government Accountability Office found that the VA may have deliberately miscalculated budget requests to claim a false savings ofmore than $1.3 billion because the Administration refused to ask Congress for the appropriate funding to care for veterans. It is ironic that those behind the VA's infamous 2005 budget received 2006 bonuses. We do not believe that $33,000 salary bonuses for those who were responsible for those serious miscalculations are an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars.
The VA - as a government entity, and more importantly as the organization privileged with serving our nation's veterans - must serve as an example of ethical business operations. Today's report leads us once again to doubt the integrity of the very institution charged with serving the brave men and women who have so selflessly defended our country and our freedom.
As we work with House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner to determine the appropriate response to these reports, we would appreciate your perspective on this situation. We would particularly appreciate hearing whether you believe these enormous bonuses-reportedly, the most generous in the federal government-are truly necessary to help the Department accomplish its mission of serving our nation's veterans.
Sincerely,Harry E. Mitchell, Chair, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Zack Space, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Tim Walz, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Ciro D. Rodriguez Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Meanwhile, the Associated Press also reports that U.S. Congress furious at Iraq lawmakers' plan for long recess. Somehow, we doubt they'll be following Tim Walz's lead and scheduling public meeting after public meeting with their constituents.
Comments