Should VA OIG Chief Get A Subpoena?
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson could subpoena a file on VA OIG’s investigation into deadly prescriptive practices utilized by the Tomah VA mental health care providers. But will he?
I for one think it is time for politicians to follow up on their rhetoric with action by protecting their citizens at the state level against tyranny and cronyism from the Department of Veterans Affairs. In for a penny, in for a pound. It’s time to get to work.
Last week, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) demanded that the supposed VA watchdog provide files related to its investigation of Dr. David Houlihan and other health care providers linked to the deaths of numerous facility patients at Tomah VA. Johnson demanded VA OIG investigators provide the file of its investigation by 5pm last Friday. This makes sense since the agency failed to conduct a thorough evaluation last time and veterans still died.
The deadline came and went, showing yet another politician that VA leadership balks fully at any forms of oversight.
Is it just me, or do politicians’ threats seem like little more than political show since we all know VA will not answer to deadlines set by suits in DC? It sure would be great if politicians called a spade a spade and filed the subpoena we all know they can file.
Senator Johnson wrote USA Today reporter Donovan Slack the following:
“The refusal of your office to comply fully and promptly with the committee’s oversight needlessly narrows and delays the committee’s examination of the tragedies that occurred.”
I personally think it is time for out politicians to stand up for its citizens and its veterans. Whet else will it take to make this a reality?
Source: https://www.fdlreporter.com/story/news/local/2015/03/01/johnson-rips-inspector-va/24234651/
Thank you for continuing the quest for truth at the VA. I wanted to aid the readers in some legal information that will hopefully get more people scratching their heads and wondering where this actually stops. The senators and congress have known about the VA’s lack of compliance, the lies, the manipulation, yet none of them have done anything about the corruption. Lots of talk and action when they need to get reelected back in congress or the senate, when in actuality it is nothing but face time for the citizens of the US. Please, I beg the readers to look up the information provided and ask their senators and congressional representatives, why they are not holding the criminals accountable, per the law.
The crime you refer to is called obstruction of justice and each of the members involved can be held accountable under Title 18 of the United States Code. The obstruction charges should be filed by the law enforcement, investigator, or the committee who has the jurisdiction over the investigation. Chapter 73, Sections: 1505, 1509, 1510, etc. This is how a subpoena can be requested from a federal judge, but the VA has ignored those requests in the past as well without repercussion. The lawyers of the VA, aka the regional counsel, general counsel, and special counsels, are not independent. If you ask a lawyer from the government, they will say they are in place to protect the VA, the managers and the government, contrary to the law. their sworn oath, and the “ethical” impartiality requirement of Executive law 12731. The reason the VA can do what they want is because there is a huge conflict of interest by having the bad guys represent themselves and not the public’s best interest. The same attorneys that represent the other agencies, work in the same office and there is a huge conflict of interest, much like everyone is finding out about the VA OIG.
Look at the VA OIG website, how many times was this problem at Oakland reported? Go back 10 years. Data manipulation has been in the reports. The fast letter with the date of discovery crime was in many of the OIG reports for the last year. Yet, not one person is in jail. Not one criminal charge has been brought against the VA management by the VA OIG (the police of the VA), by the senators or congressional reps who have known, nor by any other regulatory agency up to and including the Dept. of Justice, Office of Special Council, etc. The committee and regulatory law enforcement agencies have the authority and jurisdiction to hold the VA management accountable but have not, even though the law states otherwise. Conflict of interest? Lazy? Criminals themselves?
As always,
Semper FI
A. Silveria
A Veterans Benefits Administration
(VBA) management support team, sent
to assist with operations of the Oa
kland Veterans Service Center from
October through November 2012, found in
a file cabinet approximately
14,000 informal claims dating back to
the mid-1990s. VARO staff stated
they counted the documents and found 13,184 informal claims, of which
2,155 still required processing action.
VARO management tasked a special
project team to process” etc etc
https://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-14-03981-119.pdf
Sorry if someone here already posted the link.
AND, for any vet who believes VA messed up their claim, at any RO ,denied them their rights, or didn’t know how to read their evidence etc etc.
feel free, like MANY of us at http://www.hadit.com have done and email them at
[email protected] (Ms Hickey is the Under Secretary of VA,)
My claims went right to VACO yesterday due to contacting her a month ago.My RO cannot read and the conversations with my RO director by email and phone have been to say, unusual at best , and downright ridiculous a few times…
or send email to
[email protected]
I made it clear to Ms Hickey that we have not caused the backlog, the ROs have caused it and the BVA annual reports to Congress prove that fact.
@namnibor: Did you catch the latest from social security? https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2015/03/10/thousands-of-u-s-workers-older-than-100-that-might-be-social-security-fraud/ “Thousands of workers over the age of 100 applied to verify their employment eligibility through the U.S. government in recent years.” Kinda makes ya think, dunnit? Accompanying that little news nugget is the one where they now say that the VA itself is something like #7 on the list of federal agencies/entities which are on the high-risk list for fraud, waste, and abuse. Those 3 little magic words are something I remember from ‘back in the day’ when I still wore a uniform, and they basically spell the undoing of any institution, either public, or private. FWA is what happens when an institution gets to a size of unmanageability, bloated, in other words, and they start talking about things like loss rates, and the simple fact that people aren’t perfect, and you have humans in the management of most of these things. Humans make assumptions and other mistakes, with the net final result that our country, nationally, loses something like 3 billion per day, some kind of number in that general neighborhood, that in an environment where they SPEND 11 billion a day, so, assume it’s a full 3 billion that’s lost, mismanaged, or embezzled, and just call it 27% loss, which is still 73% efficient, so not TOO horrible, but still…where does generosity stop and incompetence start, and what kind of countermeasures can be effectively employed within the VA and the IRS and the Social Security administration and more largely the federal government in its entirety, to tighten that up significantly? The Big Money Machine has a lot of exploitable holes in it. All just wild speculation, of course, but $4 trillion is the stated annual federal budget /365= 11 billion, roughly. But hey, who really cares? A billion here, couple billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about REAL money, right? Right. And who’s going to miss a couple fraudulent social security or disability claims? 100% military disability is currently worth about 30 grand a year. And when you see people with 100% military disability getting into lift-kitted 4wd trucks, you do kind of wonder just WTF is REALLY going on, here…how big of a sob-story could YOU tell, for that kind of coin?
If you read on in the WP article, it becomes evident that some crafty operators have been perpetrating some serious fraud, and it’s not a situation where ‘the social security administration is at risk for fraud’, it’s that the social security administration needs to hire some more investigators that report directly to the IG, and have 24/7 legal support through the federal government, and they need to start taking people to court and recouping whatever monies that the federal government might be able to get from them. And, the same goes for the VA. The Office of the Inspector General is the ‘buck stops here’ oversight office, they are the people that get to take out the trash. And, apparently, there’s a lot of trash. VAOIG has a webpage of their own through the va.gov website, where all the gory details are being detailed. Scammy charities, benefits fraud, whole 9 yards. Good times!
03/04/2015
Dear Benjamin Krause,
Again as always, great work!
From Bruce Wallace:
“Take it easy, and watch McDonald and his entire executive crew go down in flames very, very soon. Start thinking about a real VA Secretary, like maybe Ben Krause or someone like him. That is all.”
Infiltrated & Sabotaged has been the condition for many decades—but the money dictates the direction of this “dead cat bounce.”
Why do you think the VA is dragging their feet since 2007/2005? Please note: this is when the money left New York bound for Bahrain via London; just before the Banking Collapse and the beginning of the”Great Recession” [Americans in Foreclosure] and President Bush took his R&D Presidential Funds with him as he left the Office [covered in a documentary PBS called, “Water Wars”].
Just before Karlheinz Halter [Author of Wake-up America] died he asked, “Did we do enough”–emulating the recent words from the former U.S. Representative, Ron Paul.
Should VA OIG Chief Get A Subpoena? Yes!
Just remember where the Chief worked before getting this latest job!
Sincerely,
Don Karg
Dragging their feet since 2005/2007????? Why did it take them from the end of the Vietnam War (1973) until 1991 to admit that Agent Orange had caused countless deaths and permanent illnesses then also deny its use in Thailand until 2010. And still they have not owned up to ALL of the diseases and illnesses it has and does cause or all the places it was used and stored!! 2005/2007? It goes way back before that. They are just waiting for enough of us to give up or die before they finally come clean (if then). It’s all about the $$$$
Sincerely
John Gagnier
Diusabled Veteran USAF 1967 – 1979
I think Bruce got hold of some good drugs and a government computer, is what I think. Tom Clancy understudy, there. Any substance to that short novel? Wow.
You know that’s really part of the problem, the va is so screwed up from top to bottom that you just wish something sinister is going on …
But nope …
It’s prolly just a pointless cluster fuck :0/
Well, I just browsed back over Bruce’s word-wall, and there was all this stuff about the ATF being at his house and the VA owes him over a million in compensation and this that and the other, and, wow! It reminds me of that ‘blooded combat veteran’ dude that took up residence with my relatives some years ago. That guy watches a LOT of movies, and claims to have killed 130 people! Hmm…….hmmm….(chin scratch) And, I just wonder how many more Oscar-Tangos the VA has to contend with, on a regular basis….Oscar-TANGOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
Gee, Am I little red riding hood or am I the big bad wolf? Since they surely monitor these post I am sure, all I can say are two things. “Ben has given me a plethora of information, and the other is I shall plead the FIFTH!” :-O
Never ever believe my silence means nothing, considering
it shall be quite entertaining-hmm, and more hmmm! 🙂
Here is a link to the ABC 7 News team I reported getting an Iraq veteran’s “Complete File.” So if I go missing you all can call this news station and help my daughters. VA investigates how personal files were sent to the wrong person: https://youtu.be/J_24j3IAkOs
Interesting what happened today.
Carolyn
That is absolutely horrific! It’s obvious not ONE PERSON at the VA looked and visually matched the name, social, et al, to make sure correct file…how LONG would have that actually taken? Meanwhile, we Veterans are forced to trust the VA to make decisions on our very files if we make a claim for Service Connection.
Makes one call into question competence…or the lack thereof, of those we are forced to trust. So sad! This should get you a personal phone call from VA Secretary himself…but am betting he is not even aware of the depth and width of his problems at the VA System…because it IS systemic and he is yet another poster boy face for the VA….NEXT!
Paragraphs are good 🙂
My wife, Dr. Wallace (a dentist) and I just got off the phone with Nate in the Washington, D.C., office of our Congressman Doug LaMalfa, as he and others there recently have/are listening: We explained that it is required by law for VA Secretary McDonald to serve substantial time in federal prison because he very significantly financially benefited by his recently exposed crimes in violation of the Stolen Valor Act which is a federal law. To wit, McDonald provided fraudulent information and false resume information to Congress, the President, the VA, and other institutions, and the entire world media, in order to obtain the position of Secretary. For example, he fraudulently and knowingly claimed that he was much, much more than a L.R.R.P. (Long Range Recon and Patrol), who wears a red/majenta beret so there is no confusion, but was instead Green Beret Special Forces. He actually posed as Green Beret/Special Forces. He obtained the position of Secretary and has collected 100’s of thousands of dollars in signing bonuses, tens of thousands of dollars in monthly paychecks, special stipends, reimbursement of expenses (to include taxpayer defraudment to pay for ultra luxury private jets, private helicopters, 5 star resort hotels, etc., all of which were misappropriation of funds by abject fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit a raft of misdemeanors like witness tampering, lying self-witness, witness intimidation, intimidation of a Congressional member and committees by lying under oath and making false bravado threats as to what will happen if he is not the chosen candidate for Secretary because of his “Special” (Forces) background, and other “Brian Williams” long list of lies and delusions. Admiral Boorda, Colonel Sabow, Captain Digman, all of which had VA ties, were all past associates of mine, who were assassinated by suicide, under extreme pressure, or many competent investigators found that they were flat out assassinated. Boorda supposedly lied about receiving the “V” for Valor then put a gun in his mouth and killed himself, like Sabow and Digman. I personally investigated all of these murders, and McDonald has every indication of being the next one. There are giant corporations tied to this scandal that has barely started to unfold, like Colgate, Xerox, and others, that McDonald is still affilidated with and collecting deferred as well as current compensation to the tune of millions of dollars a month in exchange for special over-bid contracts and exclusive rights to provide materials, services and supplies to the VA that involves literally billions of graft dollars via organized crime. Colonel Sabow’s brother, Dr. Sabow, personally spoke with me asking me many times what really happened to his brother, and to Boorda, and to Digman. Let me tell you: The VA, the CIA, and the military were all compromised by corrupt persons in high positions at each agency, it involved huge shipments and orders and multi-billion dollar contracts of prescription medications, as well as unprocessed cocaine and heroin that they are still using to make “generic” substitutes of prescription medications the VA dispenses daily to the tune of several million dollars per day. Sabow was assassinated because he did not listen to me and Special Agent Heath of NCIS who both cautioned him to NOT go out onto the tarmac with Marine MP’s like he did to intercept huge shipments of cocaine and heroin coming in from South America, and the poppy fields of Afghanistan where real Special Forces troops of ours in combined action units melded into an on detach to the 82nd Airborne, the 101, etc., etc.: fighting to the death to shut down the source of the drugs only to have McDonald’s pharmaceutical companies under his direct knowledge and leadership re-route shipments that were supposed to be destroyed on the ground by napalm strikes or hand burning. That is enough for now, but one last thing: accessory to murder, genocide of innocent civilians and non-combatants/non-enemies to wipe out entire villages and dwellings in order to keep the pipe lines flowing for cheap “generic” ingredient shipments of heroin, cocaine. McDonald along with people locally where I am, along with my wife and children who are being arrested, have been arrested, stalked aggressively by police who don’t even know why they are ordered to target us, and now they are ready to put my wife in prison and then deport her after they gang rape her as they have done to other women in this area. A VA executive, Cindy Morrison (last name may be off, but it is there correctly with the raft of dead switch information and already with the media waiting to go out and not stop till they back off and do their real jobs): Her son was NCIS, they murdered him recently because he was helping me do this free-lance investigation with others, then they poisoned her, and she barely survived, now she is in hiding. It goes on and on. McDonald is literally some kind of double agent traitor, as are many of the police in your local community; we brought countless thousands of Russians to America when Gorbachev was in power, gave them each $2,000 a month, 15 of them would live in a 1 bedroom apartment, and now they are in power at all levels and they know they are Russians and have first loyalty to Putin who wants to nuke us right now. The next cop that goes off on you or someone, like the homeless man they murdered yesterday captured on a smartphone, you can safely say that it was done by a Russian immigrant who has the sleeper mission to disrupt society and make us all hate all cops and go to civil war against them. Armor piercing bullets are flying off the shelves right now because DHS who has been long ago infiltrated by the Russians and other enemy countries of ours, and Russia clearly is our enemy again, it is the only way to stop someone wearing a ballistic vest. Americans who overreact may find, and are actually already are, and I mean solid citizens, millions of them, themselves in almost getting into, just steps away from, or actual gun battles with our own police with the only way to defend themselves, they (wrongly) think, is by shooting through police vests and armored vehicles and hardened police stations, etc.: that is a huge mistake, do NOT get into physical altercations with the cops because they will kill you even if you look at them wrong as they nearly did when SWAT was at my house recently. The VA owes me over $1 million in retro compensation though I got over $130,000 lump sum a few year ago and get 100% VA comp for ptsd and head injury now. Take it easy, and watch McDonald and his entire executive crew go down in flames very, very soon. Start thinking about a real VA Secretary, like maybe Ben Krause or someone like him. That is all.
Bruce, may I ask what the source of al of this information (your comments) is?
I suspect the OIG is part of everything that is wrong at the VA. Bruce Wallace had an outstanding idea suggesting Ben Krause for a future VA Secretary!
I have been incredibly fortunate in having in my State of Ohio, Senator Sherrod Brown and Steve Stivers–both are great advocates for Veterans and I have Senator Sherrod Brown to personally thank for his office lighting the proverbial fire under the butts of the VA with my specific claim back in 2009 and the year prior to that Senator Sherrod Brown ALSO did the same with my Social Security Disability Income Claim as well.
Get this: I had been denied three different times by Social Security, even though I had wealth of civilian Dr.’s and a long medical paper trail of my health issues and spent more time admitted in hospital than at home trying to heal…well, upon being denied that 3rd time, I was told that it would have to go before an Administrative Judge and it would be THREE YEARS before it would see light of day on a judge’s desk in my State’s backlog of Soc Sec. Claims.
I wrote my Senator Sherrod Brown’s office and I actually had an RN AON HIS STAFF CALL ME and acquire lots of info and GUESS WHAT? Within THREE MONTHS my claim was not only at an Administrative Judge’s desk, but that judge ADMONISHED Social Security Disability Determination Services, which is the OUTSOURCED AGENCY they use and my claim was approved.
Your mileage may vary BUT contacting your State Senator’s office for your claims cannot HURT, as my proof provided shows and encourage it. I certainly cannot just be some special isolated case-in-point to which the very Representative does what they were elected to do, REPRESENT YOU!
We need to hold our elected officials to their very JOB DESCRIPTION and it sure seems to me this is not a widely utilized resource each and every person in these great 50 USA States have at your disposal…whether you take the chance and try to use it is entirely up to you.
I should add that I did NOT use ANY Veteran Service Officers or agencies such as DAV, VFW, et al., but got ALL the information and advice for filing both claims on the incredibly informative website for helping Veterans navigate both Soc. Sec. and the VA, at https:www.hadit.com….that was way before I even heard of Ben”s blog and quite possibly before he even had it and was still in law school.
I need to add that EVERY Veteran Service Officer and Advocacy Group will give you MISINFORMATION as they did with me in that they SPECIFICALLY told me, “If you get a Senator or Representative involved it will only further DELAY your claim”….you know what? I am now convinced that they say this because THEY HATE when a member of Congress actually DOES THEIR JOB and ADVOCATES DIRECTLY FOR YOU because then those very so-called co-dependent on the VA’s dysfunction AND $$$ are not able to screw you to INFLATE THEIR BONUS for making your lives hell!
Yes, all the info you need is in aforementioned website and there’s a WEALTH of info and direct search options to find specific VA Regulations so YOU can have the LAW on your side and KNOW what you are talking about…worked for me! If perhaps more Congressmen and Women get contacted en mass by Veterans and flood them with what the VA is doing, coupled with contacting media, you have absolutely nothing to lose.
Knowledge is powerful weapon and it sets you free!
THANK YOU for the compliment about http://www.hadit.com.
I have been there for 17 years.
Lots of experience and knowledge there from us hardcore claimants.
And we are all unpaid volunteers.
And to reply to another reply here, I ask my church prayer group to pray for the VA all the time.
I oftened prayed for my RO when they were handing my claims, that the rater would actually be Literate.
Veterans and widows of vets like me can request VA to use their sub poena powers in some cases. I forget the regulation.
I asked them to sub peona a doctor once during my FTCA case but I wasn’t able to understand his name on the handwritten med recs.
I stated a name I thought was correct.
VA did write back to me that they had never employed an individual by that name.
They were right.
I asked my daughter ( USAF INTEL ) to decifer his name…she came up with a different name and, by time I found him, he was in private practice and gave me a free IMO..only a few sentences in email, which co oborated my 2 IMOs for my A0 DMII death claim.I had already won the FTCA claim.
Of course VA should be subpoenaed if they are withholding important info.
@Berta Simmons–
Thanks for yours and many other’s dedicated volunteering on that very web site, coupled with my own tenacity, AND my saving all important doc’s in career and by God’s Grace, and YES, PLENTY of PRAYER, and a little nudge from a Senator, I fortunately NEVER had to go through any appeals processes and won 100% Military Service Connection first round, after the couple years it took for the snail-paced VA….and from hadit.com, I did everything via advice but the Soc. Sec. Disability Income was actually the most difficult battle…and as you well-know, the VA and Social Security DO NOT and WILL NOT TALK TO, NOR SHARE INFO WITH EACH OTHER….so I was literally doing the work of TWO CLAIMS at the same time with two gov’t agencies. It all worked out and I REALLY DO have hadit.com to thank for the WEALTH of information found there and I always refer others to that website for VA or Soc. Sec. claim info. I wish Ben would actually link hadit.com from this website…perhaps he does and I just have never seen it but I think it works hand-in-hand with Ben’s Blog.
Thanks again, Berta, for yours and many others whom volunteer there!!
I tell people that prayer surely could not hurt….right?!
STATUS QUO, is what I think. I also do a lot of PRAYING for our leaders to do the Lord’s will and not theirs. Whether we want to BELIEVE it or not, we are ALL in this LIFE together, and what HAPPENS TO ONE EVENTUALLY HAPPENS TO ALL.
Look at what happened to Adam and Eve! That little bite of fruit has sure had some ramifications!