MMQB: Xerox, P&G Insider Tapped To Head Veterans Affairs

Xerox P&G Insider

Benjamin KrauseOn Sunday, President Barack Obama selected Robert A. McDonald as his nominee to head the Dept. of Veterans Affairs. Can this Xerox, P&G insider get it done?

McDonald is the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble (P&G) and a Xerox board member. His current and past ties stretch into the US Steel Company, McKinsey Advisory Council as well as other smaller corporations and related investments.

Robert McDonald is everything we have come to expect from leaders of the failed VA bureaucracy. He is a graduate of West Point and follows in the steps of numerous West Point graduates selected to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs to a new, less scandalous, version of its former self. None of them have succeeded, and the scandals have in fact grown significantly more blatant and ridiculous over time.

Is it naïve to have faith that McDonald will lead this Titanic into safe harbor before spearheading another iceberg like the wait list scandal? He does have ties with Xerox, which is one of the leading corporations that handles VA’s benefits processing. Maybe that is a good thing. Or, maybe it is a conflict of interests since he is on the Xerox Board of Directors.

Hi and welcome to another edition of Monday Morning Quarterback for Veterans. I am your host, Benjamin Krause, creator of DisabledVeterans.org. This is where I catch you up on issues from last week and keep you posted on issues we are working on through the week.

The point of this MMQB will be to highlight how the nation is waking up to the plight of veterans. We at DisabledVeterans.org are doing our part, and this article will give insight into that fight.

Here is what we are covering today:

  • Robert McDonald bio and Congressional feedback
  • Robert McDonald’s corporate ties
  • White House review concludes ‘Corrosive culture’ at VA
  • Legislative hearings

 

Robert McDonald biography and Congressional feedback

Sunday’s sudden announcement of nominee Robert McDonald shows all the signs of a quick confirmation from Senate. He is a West Point graduate. He has an MBA from the University of Utah. He served with the 82nd Airborne Division. Following military service, McDonald led a major corporation into profitability as chief executive officer of Proctor & Gamble.

So what does Robert McDonald have to look forward to while managing this bunch of union led misfits? According to Rep. Jeff Miller, head of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, the current VA is so scandalous and corrupt that it “may surpass anything in the history of American government.”

Miller continued, “He’ll need to root out the culture of dishonesty and fraud that has taken hold within the department and is contributing to all of its most pressing challenges.”

There are only a few days left prior to the August recess, so we will need to wait and see if the White House has enough time to secure McDonald’s confirmation from the Senate.

Read More: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/29/obama-picks-ex-pg-head-to-lead-veterans-affairs/

 

Robert McDonald corporate ties

As a new feature to the MMQB and this website, I am including corporate ties for VA employees so we can track the deals and corporate decisionmakers calling the shots at VA.

Robert McDonald was listed in connection with the following companies:

  • The Proctor & Gamble Company
  • United States Steel Corporation
  • Xerox Corporation

Past connections with Proctor & Gamble and Xerox were included within primary news media sources. US Steel Corporation was only listed on a few websites.

Most notably, Xerox is one of the largest government contractors in the country. The corporation processes Medicare payments throughout the United States. Xerox bought Affiliated Computer Services three years ago, which was a large government contractor for a variety of government agencies including Veterans Affairs. Affiliated botched the contract with Veterans Affairs where it was supposed to process new claims for disability compensation in 2012. While we have no idea as to Mr. McDonald’s involvement there at that time, it is important to ask him about this issue.

Robert McDonald also has contacts with the McKinsey Advisory Council and the Singapore International Advisory Counsel of the Economic Development Board.

Members on the Board of Directors for these companies are connected with the think tanks RAND Corporation, Brookings Institution, and the Center For Strategic and International Studies.

Enterprising researchers can evaluate Robert McDonald on the website TheyRule.net. to see who he is potentially connected to on the various Boards.

 

White House review concludes ‘Corrosive culture’ at VA

On Friday, the White House published its report of VA’s corrupt culture that makes Chicago Politics look honest. The report concluded the VA health care system is plagued by a “corrosive culture” of mismanagement and distrust.

Weeks ago, President Obama sent Ron Nabors to evaluate VA and its troublesome health care arm. Nabors’ report included the following conclusions:

— The VA acts with little transparency or accountability and many recommendations to improve care are slowly implemented or ignored. Concerns raised by the public, monitors or even VA leadership are viewed by those responsible for VA’s health care delivery as “exaggerated, unimportant, or `will pass.”‘

— The VA’s lack of resources is widespread in the health care field as a whole and in the federal government. But the VA has been unable to connect its budget needs to specific outcomes.

–The VA needs to better prepare for changes in the demographic profile of veterans, including more female veterans, a surge in mental health needs and a growing number of older veterans.

Read More: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/28/va-review-finds-significant-and-chronic-failures/

 

Upcoming House Committee hearings

JUL 8, 2014 | Hearing

VA Whistleblowers: Exposing Inadequate Service Provided to Veterans and Ensuring Appropriate Accountability

 

Past Committee hearings worth watching

VBA and VHA Interactions: Ordering and Conducting Medical Examinations

Evaluating the Capacity of the VA to Care for Veteran Patients

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Voc Rehab Survival GuideBenjamin Krause is an award winning investigative reporter, Veterans Benefits Law attorney, and disabled veteran of the US Air Force, where he served in its Special Operations Command. He attended Northwestern University and  the University of Minnesota Law School using VA Vocational Rehabilitation.

While in law school, Benjamin won his decade-long fight for full disability benefits and now helps others do the same with this website and his guide, the Voc Rehab Survival Guide for Veterans. Since its first publication in 2011, the guide has helped the veteran community receive millions in untapped benefits through the VA Chapter 31 Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment program. 

Connect with Benjamin on  Google+,  Twitter,  Facebook and LinkedIn.

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10 Comments

  1. Bruce Wallace, I agree with you. The VA healthcare (or lack thereof) disgrace is only the tip of the iceberg. No one and I mean NO ONE (except Ben) has covered or is covering the true atrocity that is the benefits portion of the VA. I am 70% with a denied TDIU claim that is awaiting a VARO review now. I’ll probably hear back about it in a few more years. I won’t go into details because they are the same as most everyone else that was ever denied compensation (ignored medical evidence, lost evidence by a VSO, etc.). You get the point. I reached out to my Congressman to let him know this and actually got a phone call from his office in Washington this week. My message to him was don’t be tunnel visioned on only healthcare. The compensation/benefits section is just as bad, if not worse.

  2. McDonald was let go of P&G, his last job, because he wasn’t able to improve the bottom line or expand the company. He is not employed now, over the last year, so this opening looks real good to him. He was chosen because of his “military” somewhere in his backround, and all the shitheads in shithead village (Wash DC) think that’s who should be running the BLOB (VA). A few senators on the comittee are kind of weary of those things, however, and swear that if he can’t do what needs to be done at the VA, then someone else should replace him and take their turn. Although nothing has been firmed-up yet with him, he’ll probably accept the position and come across difficulties that were never known to him in his wildest imagination. Next year or so, the BLOB will be even worse off than it is now in different ways. So much for Ronald McDonald.

    1. If you read the MMQB here by Ben you will see that when he was at Xerox he was involved in sabotaging the benefits claims, where bonuses were given, on the contract with Xerox, to clear the backlog. Everyone knew claims were supposed to be approved if at all possible, instead he saw to it that they were simply rushed through as denials. He is beyond incompetent, and this is exactly why he has been selected.

      1. I just want to clarify – he was a Director there. The Board of Directors at any corporation set policy type decisions but likely have little if any input into day to day operation. He probably did not have anything to do with how Xerox’s Affiliated division performed regarding that contract with VA.

  3. The whole health care waiting list and death scandal was a distraction for the cash cow of the VA, the benefits section. This appointee was clearly hand-picked for his past across the board denials of VA health and other benefits during his time at Xerox. He has to be rejected or he will gut the benefits section of the VA worse than it is already for the next pathetic conspiracy at the VA and this administration that hates vets and the military.

  4. Anyone who uses their hands that much when they are talking does not believe what they are saying. It is a distraction technique and strong sign of manipulation and dishonesty with an ulterior motive. We don’t need this prick, we need a tried and true veteran’s advocate. The only vet he will advocate for is himself, just like Shitneski and his tag team wrestler pal Gibson.

  5. Ed, also, did you read the part in Ben’s summary that says this guy and his ties to Xerox already screwed up their chance at processing VA claims? He already had his fucking chance. I am so fed up with the cheap mind games these bastards play with their new appointees that all came from the same cookie cutter and the same batch of rotten dough that looks like shit, smells like shit, tastes like shit, and is pure shit. Vets deserve an advocate for a change. Appoint someone from the American Legion who has a proven track record of busting their ass for disabled vets and all vets. If congress confirms this prick I give up. Wait, no I don’t. That is their plan. Overwhelm us with another traitor till we throw in the towel and give our benefits back. This shit of appointing clone after clone has got to stop.

  6. Ben found major shi_ on this guy in 15 minutes, so i vote we do not give him a chance. if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, acts like a duck, and got caught already being a duck, it sure as hell is a duck. he is just one more sniper waiting to send his sniper clones out to pick off more vets.

  7. As a person of “color” with quite a colorful past, I say give the man his chance. We are all a little jaded, in some way or another. Prayer for our leaders also helps. Throwing DIRTY LAUNDRY will never be a POSITIVE response.
    I am sure there are some good things to say about this man.

  8. He will need a gun and a badge and a DHS name tag to top off his wardrobe. And, a truck load of cash delivered to the unions that deliberately screw up everything at the VA while covertly redirecting benefits funds to non-existent construction projects, cash incentives for exams, treatments, evaluations and appointments that intentionally never take place.

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