Lawmakers Concerned 'New' VA Leadership Transferred From Within Department

The Veterans Affairs Department has reshuffled its top leadership more than it has hired new management since the wait-time and patient data manipulation scandal was unearthed in 2014, according to a new investigation.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed disappointment in VA’s failure to bring in more new blood, especially after VA Secretary Bob McDonald recently boasted the department had 90 percent new leadership teams in its medical centers. The criticism comes after a USA TODAY report that found just eight of the 92 VA medical center directors new to their positions since July 2014 did not previously work at the department. VA employs 140 total medical center directors, meaning just two-thirds are “new” even when including transferred employees.

VA clarified McDonald meant that 84 percent -- not 90 -- of medical center leadership is new, including directors, associate directors and other executives. The department includes transfers -- employees moving from another center or job -- in that calculation.

“Moving poor managers from one VA location to another doesn’t solve problems, it just spreads them around,” said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., the soon-to-retire House Veterans' Affairs Committee chairman. “The fact that VA leaders would engage in such a tactic while mounting a misinformation campaign to mislead the public about the practice is insulting to American veterans and taxpayers.”

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the acting ranking member on the VA committee, said the blame lay equally with Congress for failing to give VA adequate hiring resources. The department’s Undersecretary for Health David Shulkin told USA TODAY both VA’s pay gap compared to the private sector and lengthy hiring rules were to blame for its failure to bring in more new employees, as well as for ongoing vacancies and interim appointments.

“Congress has a responsibility to work with the VA to create an environment that promotes strong and stable leadership at these facilities, which is critical to providing veterans the care they deserve,” Takano said. “It is clear that we have failed to meet that responsibility.”

Garry Augustine, executive director of Disabled Veterans of Americans, said the lack of new leadership at the field level brought in from outside government was not necessarily problematic. First, he noted, about a dozen of the top 15 departmentwide leaders McDonald brought in came from outside VA. He also said it was wise of VA to shuffle the deck to move people with proven track records to facilities that have struggled.

“When an organization is in trouble, like VA has been, it offers opportunities for people who have been successful to step up, and that’s what they’re doing,” Augustine said.

Marilyn Park, a legislative representative at the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 270,000 VA employees, expressed similar reservations to the critique of transfers, calling it “typical VA bashing.”

“I think it is an asset when internal promotions are used properly,” Park said. “This is the nature of big organizations.” She added there was “nothing wrong with new blood,” but it should not be the only solution, as experienced leaders are still required to transfer institutional knowledge.

McDonald’s apparent number fudging is not the first faux pas since he was sworn in as secretary in 2014; earlier this year, he said satisfaction with experiences at VA facilities was more important than wait times, noting Disney does not track wait times at its amusement parks. McDonald’s leadership remark also follows what many consider a gaffe -- or even a directly misleading comment -- by President Obama, who said in a September CNN town hall VA had “in fact fired a whole bunch of people” who were in charge of the medical facilities involved in patient data manipulation.

Factcheck.org rated Obama’s claim as “false,” noting only nine employees were fired for reasons related directly to patient wait times. VA has proposed disciplinary action against an additional 48 employees, and only three senior executives were actually removed from the department. The department has run into legal trouble when trying to exercise a new power Congress granted it in 2014 to remove senior executives, but has maintained it regularly removes troublesome employees. Last year, McDonald noted total firings for all purposes had increased in his tenure.

Miller, however, who has been a frequent critic of VA management, said there is a direct link between the department’s inability to remove employees and its persisting vacancies. 

“VA’s repeated refusal to hold employees accountable for malfeasance and mismanagement is at the root of all of the department’s most serious problems, including VA’s troubles attracting and retaining quality employees,” Miller said. “After all, who wants to work at an agency where behavior like whistleblower retaliation and wait-time manipulation is routinely tolerated?”

The House in September passed a Miller-sponsored bill to hasten the firing process and strip employees of their pay while their termination was under review.