In a message to veterans VA secretary Eric Shinseki pledged to take action if allegations of employee misconduct involving wait times at the Phoenix VHA and a cover up are true, and he said that in addition to an ongoing inspector general investigation, the VHA is conducting a nationwide internal audit.
Over 200 senior VHA staff are conducting an audit of every major VA healthcare facility (all teams are independent of the facilities they are visiting) to ensure understanding and compliance of VA appointment policy – and likely more, he said.
The House recently approved legislation that would make it easier to fire or demote executives at the VA, as well as a bill that would block bonuses for all senior executives at the VA in fiscal 2015. A Senate panel has voted to block bonuses for VHA medical directors, assistant directors and senior executives until the IG has completed its investigation and until reforms have begun as well.
Organizations such as the Senior Executives Association have cautioned against punishing all VA executives, which would penalize the good and the bad. Meanwhile the investigations are ongoing and the scandal generated from the allegations is growing.
