After killing our vets, VA promises more accountability
The office is officially known as the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, and Trump called it a “bold step forward” after scandals rocked the VA under the Obama administration.
Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, says any help is welcomed if it helps veterans cut through bureaucratic red tape.
“That is always a good idea,” he says. “We need whistle-blowers to blow the whistle on things that are wrong, and abuses have occurred in many VA facilities.”
And those abuses were stunning: creating a fake wait list to cover up the number of veterans waiting to see a doctor, and punishing VA employees who warned that vets were dying while waiting for care.
The total number of veterans who died awaiting care is estimated at 40, though there could have been more, while approxiately 1,600 were waiting months to see a doctor, Fox News reported.
A timeline of the scandal, compiled by USA Today, dates back to 2012 and documents how whistleblowers in Arizona, including an ER doctor and a doctor of internal medicine, were punished even after contacting the Office of Inspector General to report on wrongdoing.
Donnelly tells OneNewsNow she has one caveat about the new office, which is to allow due process when somebody stands accused.
“When a complaint is filed,” she says, “the rights of due-process of the persons accused also need to be protected at all times.”
Yet due process doesn’t seem to be a problem at the VA. The Daily Caller reported in January that Obama holdovers included numerous convicted sex offenders, an ex-con jailed for theft, and a woman who kept her job even after she was involved in an armed robbery and was in jail.
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