H
Harry Hope
Guest
In July 2005, the VA stunned Congress by suddenly announcing it faced
a $1 billion shortfall after failing to take into account the
additional cost of caring for veterans injured in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The admission, months after the department insisted it was operating
within its means and did not need additional money, drew harsh
criticism from both parties and some calls for Nicholson's
resignation.
The investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability
Office, determined the VA had used misleading accounting methods and
claimed false savings of more than $1.3 billion, apparently because
President Bush was not willing, at the time, to ask Congress for more
money.
http://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2007/05/02/ap/headlines/d8ospaog0.txt
Thursday, May 3, 2007
AP: Senior VA Officials Get Big Bonuses
By HOPE YEN
WASHINGTON -
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.
The list of bonuses to senior career officials at the Veterans Affairs
Department in 2006, obtained by The Associated Press, 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 a burgeoning Iraq war.
Annual bonuses to senior VA officials now average more than $16,000 _
the most lucrative in government.
The VA said the payments are necessary to retain hardworking career
officials.
Several watchdog groups questioned the practice.
They cited short-staffing and underfunding at VA clinics that have
become particularly evident after recent disclosures of shoddy
outpatient treatment of injured troops at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center in Washington.
"Hundreds of thousands of our veterans remain homeless every day and
hundreds of thousands more veterans wait six months or more for VA
disability claim decisions," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of
Veterans for Common Sense.
_______________________________________________
Now how d'ya suppose that happened?
Harry
a $1 billion shortfall after failing to take into account the
additional cost of caring for veterans injured in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The admission, months after the department insisted it was operating
within its means and did not need additional money, drew harsh
criticism from both parties and some calls for Nicholson's
resignation.
The investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability
Office, determined the VA had used misleading accounting methods and
claimed false savings of more than $1.3 billion, apparently because
President Bush was not willing, at the time, to ask Congress for more
money.
http://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2007/05/02/ap/headlines/d8ospaog0.txt
Thursday, May 3, 2007
AP: Senior VA Officials Get Big Bonuses
By HOPE YEN
WASHINGTON -
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.
The list of bonuses to senior career officials at the Veterans Affairs
Department in 2006, obtained by The Associated Press, 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 a burgeoning Iraq war.
Annual bonuses to senior VA officials now average more than $16,000 _
the most lucrative in government.
The VA said the payments are necessary to retain hardworking career
officials.
Several watchdog groups questioned the practice.
They cited short-staffing and underfunding at VA clinics that have
become particularly evident after recent disclosures of shoddy
outpatient treatment of injured troops at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center in Washington.
"Hundreds of thousands of our veterans remain homeless every day and
hundreds of thousands more veterans wait six months or more for VA
disability claim decisions," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of
Veterans for Common Sense.
_______________________________________________
Now how d'ya suppose that happened?
Harry
