An announcement from the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this week showed that the organization is actually paying attention to some things. While it’s not patient care improvement or shortening wait times for veterans to get much needed health care, the VA took disciplinary action against appeals staffers for inappropriate conduct on the job.
An announcement from the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this week showed that the organization is actually paying attention to some things. While it’s not patient care improvement or shortening wait times for veterans to get much needed health care, the VA took disciplinary action against appeals staffers for inappropriate conduct on the job.
The staffers involved include three Board of Veterans Appeals (Board) attorneys and two Board Veterans Law Judges. Disciplinary actions were proposed against the attorneys and formal complaints have been filed against the judges. The complaints against the judges were referred to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the organization with direct jurisdiction over complaints involving administrative law judges.
The complaints against the two Board Veterans Law Judges were filed by Sloan D. Gibson, the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Gibson also had a hand in the proposed disciplinary actions against the three Board attorneys. An investigation by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) revealed patterns of misconduct on the part of the five individuals involved.
The misconduct was a “pattern of inappropriate emails that were racist and sexist in tone.” Obviously, not conduct befitting persons in these positions.
The VA received this information from the OIG early on in the investigation and the VA took the immediate action of reassigning these individuals to non-adjudicative duties “pending the disciplinary actions that have now been taken to protect Veterans appellate rights.”
According to Gibson, “These actions are reprehensible and completely counter to our values. It undermines the trust the American people place in the VA to serve our Veterans and has no place in this Department. We will not tolerate it. Taking action as quickly as we did was simply the right thing to do.”
The VA proposed disciplinary actions against two of the Board attorneys in mid-January 2016. Neither is currently with the VA; on resigned from Federal service entirely during the time the actions were pending and the other retired. The one attorney left is facing lesser administrative penalties for the misconduct.
The appeals handled by these five individuals are being reviewed by the VA. The VA is also looking at comparative statistical data gleaned from internal quality reviews, as well as appeals of Board decisions that were made to federal courts. The VA said they have no reason to believe that any Veterans’ appeal was negatively influenced by the misconduct of the five individuals involved.
Source:
Join the conversation!