A House bill to allow the VA to rescind, or “claw back,” performance awards already paid is “nothing more than blatant punishment and could be utilized for reasons that are optically and politically motivated,” the Senior Executives Association has said.
SEA made that comment in a letter to House Veterans Affairs Committee chair Jeff Miller, R-Fla., who recently introduced abill (HR-280) he first offered last year in light of the VA patient care and scheduling scandal.
“Over the past year, SEA has watched as Congress has called for the termination of individual senior executives along with the rescinding of their performance awards. SEA is strongly concerned that allowing a political appointee to take back performance awards for any reason could well politicize such awards and allow political appointees and Congress to use the threat of rescinding bonuses to target individual employees without any evidence of wrongdoing.”
The organization added, however, that it “does believe that any awards that can clearly be shown through an investigation and impartial hearing to have been awarded on the basis of fraudulent actions or accomplishments should be rescinded.”
Although most of the focus on the proposal has involved SES members, the bill would apply to all VA employees. A CBO analysis of last year’s bill said that awards to SES members account for only 1 percent of the $400 million VA pays out annually in awards and that the provision likely would be used rarely.
