Employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs would be required to take a 45-minute whistleblower training course under legislation introduced July 23 in the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whistleblower training currently offered at the VA is optional for employees, and many opt not to take it, according to a press release about the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVA employees must know to speak up if they see concerns with veterans\u2019 care or other waste, fraud and abuse,\u201d said Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., one of the bill sponsors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proposal would require VA employees to take the training once but would allow the agency\u2019s Office of Inspector General to send emails to VA employees twice a year without the VA secretary\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur veterans deserve nothing short of high-quality care, and the Inspector General\u2019s Office plays an important role in helping ensure the VA is meeting its lawful obligations,\u201d bill sponsor Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur bill will help foster cooperation between VA employees and the Inspector General so that reporting wrongdoing is a process all employees are trained in. Protecting our former servicemembers from negligence or willful misconduct must be a top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the VA Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, 495 cases were investigated by the office in the past year, and another 569 cases were referred to individual VA offices for their own investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection reported that over 354,000 people had been trained in whistleblower rights and protections as of June 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That training is already mandatory and separate from the training on waste, fraud and abuse proposed in the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEffective oversight depends on VA employees reporting wrongdoing and cooperating fully with VA Office of Inspector General investigations, inspections, audits, and evaluations. Early and accurate reporting by VA staff can save patients\u2019 lives, protect VA employees, ensure veterans timely receive needed benefits and services, and recoup billions of dollars in monetary recoveries and avoided costs,\u201d said VA Inspector General Michael J. Missal in the news release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The legislation aims to improve the means of exposing waste and fraud at the Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":30404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":9,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,31,33,9],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2853],"class_list":["post-10086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters","category-federal-oversight"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"FEIPTWZAZNGARF47AD35NUMDUY","arc_canonical_url":"\/federal-oversight\/2021\/07\/23\/whistleblower-training-at-va-would-be-mandatory-under-new-bill\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n