In the wake of an ongoing scandal over the alleged abuse of a Department of Veteran Affairs relocation program, Sen. Tom Carper, D.-Del., wants to know how the VA is protecting taxpayer dollars.
Carper sent a letter to VA secretary Robert McDonald on Nov. 23, asking what safeguards the agency has in place to prevent fiscal abuse like that alleged against two of its executives.
Related: Read the letter
The controversy stems from an inspector general’s report that alleges two VA executives forced subordinates out of their positions in order to claim them for themselves while keeping senior-level salaries.
The report claims that Veterans Benefit Administration executives Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves used their positions for profit when they took lower-responsibility positions after transferring their predecessors. The pair were allowed to keep their original salaries and made use of a relocation program to receive moving benefits.
Carper asked what mechanism VA has in place to identify “exhorbitant” relocation expenses and prevent them from being reimbursed.
“I take the reports of misconduct at the VA very seriously, as I’m sure that you do, and I believe appropriate action should be taken to hold accountable those responsible and address the incidents that led to these serious issues,” Carper said in the letter.
“We need to remain vigilant to ensure that the Department of Veterans Affairs is providing access to comprehensive, quality care for veterans throughout our country,” Carper wrote. “We have a responsibility to ensure that they receive the help and benefits that they have earned, and that includes appropriate use of taxpayer resources provided to the VA.”
Military Times reported that the VA recently demoted Rubens and Graves from senior executive to general worker status.
The scandal has also produced a tit-for-tat between the House committee and the VA when committee chair Rep. Jeff Miller, R.-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, subpoenaed the pair, as well as three other VA executives, after their failure to appear at an Oct. 21 hearing. A day before that hearing, VA deputy secretary Sloan Gibson warned that the appearance of the executives at the committee before the agency had completed its investigation could appear to prejudice the results. Gibson offered to testify in place of the executives prior to Miller’s subpoena.
Then, at a committee hearing on Nov. 2, Rubens and Graves refused to testify, invoking their Fifth Amendment privileges not to incriminate themselves.
Following the demotion, Rubens was made the assistant director of the VBA’s regional office in Houston, while Graves was made the assistant director of the Phoenix office.
