Legislation has been introduced in the House Veterans Affairs Committee giving the VA secretary direct authority to fire or demote VA SES employees or equivalent based on performance. It comes on the heels of a bill passed by the House recently containing a five-year ban on SES performance bonuses at the VA.
The VA Management Accountability Act of 2014, introduced by committee chair Jeff Miller, R-Fla., seeks to circumvent current processes of discipline and demotion that Miller says impedes the department’s ability to hold some 448 career SES VA employees accountable for priorities such as eliminating the disability backlog and preventing disease outbreaks at hospitals.
The VA was not subject to furloughs under sequestration and implemented mandatory overtime that as of December has helped reduce the disability backlog by 36 percent. Still, Miller objects to performance bonuses being paid to VA executives linked to mismanagement – such as that reported by the VA inspector general in the past impacting patient care.
“While the vast majority of VA’s more than 300,000 employees and executives are dedicated and hard-working, the department’s well-documented reluctance to ensure its leaders are held accountable for mistakes is tarnishing the reputation of the organization and may actually be encouraging more veteran suffering instead of preventing it,” Miller wrote.
