VA OIG: Veterans Affairs Chief Business Office ‘Misused’ $3.1 Million In Another IT Boondoggle
The money just keeps pouring out of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and this recent VA OIG investigation report of more IT failures keeps the trend moving.
One thing to keep in mind here is that every time you see “Chief Business Office” you are actually reading about the abyss of money at Denver VA. That is where it is located, and there is where money, due process rights, veterans benefits, and a host of other things seemingly vanish never to be heard from again.
It is no wonder the Aurora VA project seemingly lost so much money. I would bet a dollar if I were a betting man that all the missing money is either moving to “off balance sheet” projects or being moved to different coffers to evade auditors from finding fraud.
RELATED: Aurora VA To Help Fewer Veterans After $1 Billion Over Budget
Chief Business Office Boondoggle
According to IG:
Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) Chief Business Office (CBO) misused approximately $3.1 million of Medical Support and Compliance (MS&C) appropriations when they funded the Debt Management Center’s (DMC) development of the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) system enhancement. The former Deputy Director, Finance and Logistics for the CBO Revenue Operations, stated she thought she could obligate the MS&C appropriation because it was the only funding available and the DMC recovers costs through its customers. However, public law states that MS&C appropriations are only authorized for necessary expenses in the administration of medical, hospital, nursing home, domiciliary, construction, supply, and research activities—not information technology (IT) development. As a result of our work, in June 2016, the Office of Management reimbursed the VHA the approximately $3.1 million inappropriately used from the MS&C appropriation.
We also found that VHA used the MS&C, Medical Services, and IT Systems appropriations to finance five mobile health application development contracts. Public funds may be used only for the purpose for which they were appropriated. However, when an agency has two appropriations available for the same purpose, the agency must select which one to use. The agency must continue to use that appropriation for that purpose unless the agency informs Congress of its intent to change appropriations. VHA’s use of multiple appropriations for the same purpose occurred because it had not updated its financial policies to include how VHA should fund mobile health application development. As a result, VHA lacked consistency and transparency in the execution of its appropriations. We made three recommendations. VA concurred with the recommendations and has taken acceptable corrective actions. The OIG considers the recommendations closed.
Why Work For A Living When You Can Waste Taxpayer Money?
All this money going out the window on IT projects certainly makes me think I wasted a lot of time going to law school when I could’ve sold my own IT skills to Veterans Affairs at a massive markup.
What a bunch of clowns.
Source: https://www.va.gov/oig/publications/report-summary.asp?id=4017
Off Topic – Keeping Up with the Currents (Currants) in Keeping it Civil – Morning to you. There’s E-A-G-L-E emotional outbursts happening all over the Tri-State Area. MSM is letting all the areas residents know.
Just giving you a heads up, that if your traveling close to this region, or on Interstate 95, and your a Vikings fan, but you still want to where purple colored shades of clothing or accessories, and don’t want any, or to reduce the attacks from Philly fans, I suggest that you reveal some green. This will confuse those radical, rebel, and rogue ones. Therefore, giving you enough time to get out of their “Safe Space,” due to the lack of “Trigger Warnings.”
With all this noise in this area, it has negatively effected my Safe Space, and with the lack of Trigger Warnings, has exacerbated my misophonia. Where this word is so new that it’s not in the spell checker app used on Ben’s site. There, I’m a head of the curve, for just a bit, I’d say.
Senate Report 93-549 – senate-report-93-549_0.pdf
“https://anticorruptionsociety.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/senate-report-93-549_0.pdf”
Off Topic – Many Vets are not only home bound, but are lonely. Thought I’d share a decent read that may apply to one’s situation. Most of us need as much calming mental stimulation. NO NOT ME.
“https://www.artofmanliness.com/2018/01/15/admiral-byrd-south-pole/”
Awesome! I needed that! Great quote from that link: “There Is No Peace, No Beauty, No Joy, Without Struggle”.
…as it is with our plight and fight to clean the VA up. One big struggle.
Most certainly this new drug company owned by the Veterans administration is going to need some kind of leadership. Right?
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Leadership
“VA to again reopen search for a new top health official”
By: Leo Shane III Federal Times, 01/17/2018
WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs has been without its top health official since last February, when he was promoted to the secretary job.
On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, VA Secretary David Shulkin acknowledged its going to be a while longer before that position is filled.
Department officials are planning to launch a new search commission in coming weeks to recommend candidates for the VA under secretary for health position, the third such commission in last 12 months. The previous two commissions failed to come up with a name, despite months of effort.
This time, they’re hoping for a candidate by early spring, more than a year into the new administration.
Members of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee expressed concerns that the department has been without its top health official for a year, amid months of complex negotiations on overhauling VA’s community care medical programs.
They also noted that the health job isn’t the only prominent one at VA still unfilled by a permanent appointee. The department’s new assistant secretary for accountability position has not yet been named, more than 200 days after it was created. The department’s top information technology post has been vacant for almost a full year
“I think it may be one of the hardest jobs in America,” he told reporters after the committee’s hearing Wednesday. “This in not only the largest health care system, but it’s operating not only within the challenges of health care but also the challenges of a federal government organization.
Full Article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/veterans/2018/01/17/va-to-again-reopen-search-for-a-new-top-health-official/
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Pretty darn sure they have some people in mind for all those positions and with out a doubt they will all becoming from the newly forming Veterans Administrations Big Pharma businesses.
The new Veterans Administration is like having a bad nightmare while having a bad nightmare that is never ending.
Now not only will we have the deadliest Health Care System in America but it will also be the Deadliest Pharma company in America.
Seymore,
It would seem “Shithead Shulkin” and his subordinates are wanting to kill more vets!
Or, at the least, get more vets hooked on synthetic drugs!
The corruption of the VA IS becoming more apparent day by day, month by month and year by year!
President Trump has his hands full right now with all the corruption within our government. I believe once he’s cleaned house on a few of the illegal activities committed by other agencies, ie: FBI, DOJ, CIA, and the IRS, his attention will/should be directed at the VA.
In my opinion, Shulkin is trying to commit as many crimes, which will fatten up his pockets, until he’s hung himself out to dry!
Oh but everything is just peachy in Indiana. What they report is BS and a far cry from what some of us are told. Looks like a nice clean pretty picture…. all facade. Oxygen works to help with migraines and pain too, inhaling, but most times the VA will not sign off on it. “Too dangerous” they told me and “too many vets smoking while using and blowing themselves and their homes up, causing fire depts. to roll out.”
Collective punishments or against targeted vets.
“https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/va-offer-hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-veterans-ptsd-137001/”
Shulkin gets called an habitual liar by Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan during a recent committee meeting where he was called to testify. The committee also took the unusual step of swearing in Shulkin as a witness, a move that seemed unimportant at the time but loomed large after Moran’s accusations.
“I think you tell me one thing and you tell others something else,” said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., adding that he blamed “your ability to speak out of both sides of your mouth, double-talk” for recent disagreements on veterans policy in the chamber.
“That’s incompatible with our ability to reach agreements and work together. I intend to be a member of Congress who holds you accountable for what you tell me.”
Source:
“Trump’s go-to guy at VA faces first major opposition from Republicans on Capitol Hill”
By: Leo Shane III, Marine Corp Times, 7 hours ago
Full article at: https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2018/01/19/trumps-go-to-guy-at-va-faces-first-major-opposition-from-republicans-on-capitol-hill/
“Vets slam roll out of relief for Marines poisoned at Camp Lejeune”
By Brad Schrade – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 01/21-2018
“In March, VA leaders rolled out a new disability program for Marine veterans harmed by toxic drinking water at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and touted their commitment to help those in need.
Yet nearly a year after the program launched activists are criticizing the VA for not doing enough to educate veterans and their families about the program and benefits that may be available to help them.
The issue is certain to arise at a Lejeune Community Assistance Panel meeting scheduled in Atlanta on Tuesday at the CDC, which has been studying the effects of the poisonous water supply at the base for more than a decade.
Jerry Ensminger, a Marine whose daughter died at age 9 from leukemia after the family lived at the base, sits on the panel. His advocacy group — The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten — has been advocating for Lejeune veterans for years. He has testified before Congress and the 2012 law is named after his daughter.
Ensminger said he has received reports from across the country that the VA’s efforts in the past year to notify veterans has fallen short.
The VA launched an education campaign last year through posters and information on electronic billboards in its network of more than 150 medical and benefit centers. But some facilities have failed to carry out the plan while others have given it lackluster support, including the Atlanta VA Medical Center, according to Ensminger.
He says the communication failures have gotten so bad that some veterans are making flyers and handing them out. It’s time, he said, for VA Secretary David Shulkin to get directly involved to ensure the VA’s communications are carried out competently.
“They are going to get blasted at the meeting,” he said. “I guess they figure the fewer number of veterans that know about it, the less the government will have to pay.”
From the 1950s to the 1980s, as many as a million people at the base had been exposed to water polluted with chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems. It took decades for the military to acknowledge its complicity and for leaders to extend specific health and disability benefits for those harmed.
The new program, adopted in the final days of the Obama administration, committed $2.2 billion for disability payments for veterans with eight presumptive cancers and other health conditions linked to the toxic waters. That measure, coupled with a 2012 law that extended additional health benefits to Lejeune veterans and their families, was greeted with great fanfare as the government tried to make amends for years of secrecy and denials.”
Full article at: https://www.myajc.com/news/local-military/vets-slam-roll-out-relief-for-marines-poisoned-camp-lejeune/Xog431qHfVz01JYGls9RgN/
I belong to this group on facebook
Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Survivors
Look at what “presumptive” will do for most of us, And he isn’t the only one, GO FUCK YOURSELF V.A.
Frank ******** i am in need of a kidney. Transplant. I have been fighting the VA 4yrs now w. CL. Water 3 denial. Cant work no type. Of compensation. Hopefully my next appeal will work..
Hubert Smith, interim head of the Navajo Nation Veterans Administration, was arrested after a crash last weekend. For his sixth DWI after a crash last weekend.
“Navajo Nation official arrested for 6th DWI”
Channel KOB4 Web Staff, January 19, 2018
Full report at: https://www.kob.com/new-mexico-news/navajo-nation-official-arrested-for-6th-dwi/4751346/
VA taking another crack at tricking Veterans into the Million Veterans Database. Guess they think if they try to resell it as new more Veterans might fall into the trap.
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“VA To Build Gene Database”
Published: January 19, 2018
More in: Armed Forces News
“The Department of Veterans Affairs is seeking veteran-volunteers to take part in a project that ultimately would help improve diagnosis and delivery of care to them. With the Million Veteran Program (MVP), VA would create a large database of veterans’health records. It would focus upon collecting genetic history, military exposure, life style and health information from volunteer participants.
With the enhanced increase in its pool of genetic information, VA researchers and caregivers hope to formulate improved protocols for treatment, risk assessment, and prevention of diseases and other health-related conditions.
VA hopes to enroll at least one million veterans into MVP during the next seven years, at which point the database would become one of the largest in the country.”
Sources:
https://www.fedweek.com/armed-forces-news/va-build-gene-database/
https://www.research.va.gov/mvp/
California to register illegal aliens to vote – automatically
Court orders government to do so for all driver’s licenses issued
Published: 9 hours ago
WASHINGTON – California will take the next step in blurring the lines between citizens and non-citizens beginning April Fool’s Day when the state complies with a court order to begin automatically registering to vote all those who are granted driver’s licenses.
The state has long provided driver’s licenses to all who simply claimed, without proof, that they were citizens of in the country legally. There were no checks made or documentation required.
But beginning April 1 every person who gets a California driver’s license will be automatically entitled to vote.
Full Article at:
https://www.wnd.com/2018/01/major-state-to-register-illegal-aliens-to-vote-automatically/
The Veterans Administration and a number of drug companies are joining together in the Creation of a non-profit drug scam! We all know just how well those non-profits connected to the VA pay. It is described else where as “A consortium of health care players are banding together to create a nonprofit that will manufacture generic drugs.”
One of the other players joining the Veterans Administration in starting this new drug Company is Cerner EHR. You know the one that is going to provide all the new intraoperative software for the VA.
No doubt with the new changes the VA is requesting for the Code of Federal Regulations they will have a very great marketing tool to target all Veterans. No doubt with the changes all the big pharma players joining in on creating this new drug company will have full access to all Veterans medical records both at the VA and from private doctors.
All being created under a non-taxpaying non-profit. No doubt with the VA involvement the American tax payers are really in for a soaking on this scam.
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“Missouri health systems join effort to create generic drug nonprofit ”
Kansas City Business Journal published 11 hours ago
“Several health care companies with Kansas City ties will join to combat generic drug shortages and sudden price spikes.
Intermountain Healthcare, a Salt Lake City-based health system that is a partner of Cerner Corp., will spearhead the effort to create a nonprofit generic drug company.
“We’re all struggling with the same issues: shortages of generic medications and the corresponding wild swings in prices that have made it very difficult for health systems to care for patients,” Daniel Liljenquist, a vice president with Intermountain, told the Kansas City Business Journal. “We’re inviting all health systems across the country to join us.”
St. Louis-based Ascension Health, SSM Health, Michigan-based Trinity Health and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will join Intermountain in forming the nonprofit drug manufacturer. Many of them have Kansas City ties: Ascension Health maintains an assisted-living facility and two long-term care facilities in the metro area after it sold St. Joseph Medical Center and St. Mary’s Medical Center in 2016.
“This initiative has the potential to greatly expand the availability and affordability of critically needed medications for millions of Americans, especially for people living in poverty and those most vulnerable,” Ascension CEO Anthony Tersigni said in a release. “Rather than waiting and hoping for generic drug companies to address this need, we are taking this bold step on behalf of those we are privileged to serve.””
“Several of the companies also have a common link through Cerner: Ascension Health is one of its largest clients, and Trinity Health also contracts with Cerner for its electronic health record services. Dr. Mark Briesacher, a senior vice president at Intermountain Healthcare, spoke at a tribute to late Cerner co-founder Neal Patterson at the health IT company’s annual conference.
“We talked about why we’re doing this,” he said at the conference. “it’s about the people — those we care for.”
The VA also plans to transition its health record systems to a Cerner EHR.
Liljenquist said the group had been at work for about two years before they were ready to announce the initiative, dubbed “Project Rx.” The clinical partners, which represent a total of 450 hospitals, will be key to giving the new company momentum as it launches.
“Having the scale and size of those organizations coming together every day will provide a big boost to the company as it gets off the ground,” he said.
The company will start with gaining Food and Drug Administration approval to manufacture generic drugs directly or contract manufacturing to other organizations. Liljenquist said the company would stick to generic drugs, which no longer are subject to patent or marketing exclusivity restrictions.
Essentially, the goal is to provide options for health systems facing a shortage of a needed treatment or when prices suddenly jump 1,000 percent.”
Full Article at: https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2018/01/19/missouri-health-systems-join-effort-to-create.html
More on the Drug company the Veterans Administration is creating as a so called Veterans Non-profit Organization.
“Hospital groups creating company to make cheap generic drugs”
By LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP Medical Writer |
Updated: Fri 11:23 AM, Jan 19, 2018
“TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Several major not-for-profit hospital groups are trying their own solution to drug shortages and high prices: creating a company to make cheaper generic drugs.
The plan, announced Thursday, follows years of shortages of generic injected medicines that are the workhorses of hospitals, along with some huge price increases for once-cheap generic drugs. Those problems drive up costs for hospitals, require staff time to find scarce drugs or devise alternatives, and sometimes mean patients don’t get the best choice.
The not-for-profit drug company initially will be backed by four hospital groups — Intermountain Health, Ascension and two Catholic health systems, Trinity Health and SSM Health — plus the VA health system.
Together, the five groups include more than 450 hospitals, nearly one-tenth of U.S. hospitals. They also run numerous clinics, nursing homes, doctors’ offices and other medical facilities, along with hospice and home care programs and an insurance plan. More health systems are expected to join soon.”
Full article at: https://www.kmvt.com/content/news/Hospital-groups-creating-company-to-make-cheap-generic-drugs-470148033.html
The big question is how many of the Buildings at the new Aurora VAMC are dedicated to this new endeavor. Which ones will be used for manufacturing you know little things like that.
Concerns for quality control (i.e. formulation consistency, equipment sterilization, testing ingredient purity, production area cleanliness, etc.).
VA always getting involved in enterprising opportunities instead of focusing more on what areas need improvement in health care.
Plus, the far reaching hands that will be going into this newly created cookie-jar. Grrr, ugh.
“Major Nonprofit Hospital Groups Establish a Nonprofit Pharma Alternative”
By Ruth McCambridge Ruth McCambridge | 17 hours ago
“January 18, 2018; STAT News
“NPQ has written a great deal recently about pharmaceutical companies, including their so-called philanthropy which has the apparent aim of keeping drug prices sky-high while luring in new customers. We have also covered the outrageous price-gouging of widely used drugs like Naloxone and EpiPens, among other products. This, of course, costs all of us in many ways.
But, here comes a new development in this story: Four of the nation’s largest hospital groups have banded together with the health system of the Veterans Administration to establish a nonprofit pharmaceutical company to combat “capricious and unfair pricing practices” and ameliorate shortages of certain drugs.
The groups involved include Intermountain Healthcare, which is spearheading the effort, Ascension, SSM Health, and Trinity Health. Combined with the US Department of Veterans Affairs, which will also participate in the plan, the five groups run 450 individual hospitals.
Linda Johnson of the Associated Press writes that
The plan, announced Thursday, follows years of shortages of generic injected medicines that are the workhorses of hospitals, along with some huge price increases for once-cheap generic drugs. Those problems drive up costs for hospitals, require significant staff time to find scarce drugs or devise alternatives, and sometimes mean patients get suboptimal medications.
Some details remain unrevealed, like which therapeutic areas will be targeted or how much seed money will be required.
“It’s an ambitious plan,” said Dr. Marc Harrison, chief executive officer and president of Intermountain, “but healthcare systems are in the best position to fix the problems in the generic drug market…We are confident we can improve the situation for our patients by bringing much needed competition to the generic drug market.”
The new effort is “primarily directed toward the examples where people are cornering the market and creating shortages,” Harrison says. “It’s offensive when these shortages are created and egregious pricing develops. They take something that is made for pennies and then sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars. And that’s wrong.” Harrison added that eventually supplying generic medicines to retailers is not out of the question.””
Full Article at: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2018/01/19/major-nonprofit-hospital-groups-establish-nonprofit-pharma-alternative/
“Former St. Louis VA shop foreman gets 20 months for kickback scheme”
By Robert Patrick St. Louis Post-Dispatch 9 hrs ago
“ST. LOUIS • A former shop foreman for heating and cooling at the John Cochran Veterans Administration Medical Center in St. Louis was sentenced Friday to 20 months in prison for his role in a kickback scheme that has resulted in charges against three others, prosecutors said.
Tony Pedretti, 43, of Whiting, Ind., pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge last year and admitted steering about $270,000 in work to co-conspirators.
Former VA contractor David Graham pleaded guilty to a blackmail charge in July and admitted kicking back 30 to 50 percent of the $125,000 he’d received from VA work to Pedretti and Graham’s stepfather, Scott Geary.
Geary pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in December 2016. Graham and Geary were both sentenced to three years probation. All three were ordered to repay a total of $180,000.
Former contractor Jeramy Wegman, then 38, was indicted in June and accused of paying Pedretti $1,500 for every two contracts he won. Prosecutors say he earned $181,673 from VA contracts from Feb. 1, 2014, to April 30, 2015.
Wegman has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial in March.”
Full article at: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/former-st-louis-va-shop-foreman-gets-months-for-kickback/article_74795d33-8994-546a-9564-6f501e515da1.html
More on the supervisor connected to the above scam.
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Former St. Louis VA supervisor admits kickback scheme
By Robert Patrick St. Louis Post-Dispatch May 23, 2017
“ST. LOUIS • A former supervisor at the John Cochran Veterans Administration Medical Center in St. Louis pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge Tuesday and admitted taking kickbacks for steering about $270,000 in work to co-conspirators, prosecutors said.
Tony Pedretti, 43, now of Whiting, Ind., was the HVAC foreman at the time, with the authority to agree to contracts of up to $2,500 without approval, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say Pedretti worked with outside contractors Scott Geary and Geary’s stepson, David Graham.
Between Oct. 19, 2012, and April 9, 2015, Geary worked as a contractor and was also a VA employee for part of the time, prosecutors said. Geary recruited Graham, who then kicked money back to both Pedretti and Geary from April 1, 2014, to April 20, 2015, prosecutors said.
In all, prosecutors said about $270,000 worth of work went to Pedretti’s co-conspirators.
Geary, then 54, of DeSoto, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in December and awaits sentencing.”
Full article at: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/former-st-louis-va-supervisor-admits-kickback-scheme/article_c5a11d8a-da9e-5396-ba49-fe0e7553bb09.html
“Some Federal Union Reps Keep Getting Paid During Gov’t Shutdowns”
Ethan Barton Investigative Reporter Daily Caller News Foundation
5:21 PM 01/19/2018
“Some government employees can still collect paychecks on the taxpayer’s dime for doing federal union work during a shutdown, according to the government’s human resources agency.
Government employees who are exempted from a shutdown can still use official time — the bureaucratic term that allows federal union representatives to conduct union work on government time, guidance from the Office of Personnel Management shows.”
““Exempted employees … serving as union officials may continue to be granted official time to the same extent and in the same manner as they would under non-shutdown conditions,” the guidance said.”
Full Article at: https://dailycaller.com/2018/01/19/federal-unions-government-shutdown/
Hey Elf,
Just think if old Lame Brain was in Washington and able to make it to vote the shut down would not have happened.
That is assuming he wouldn’t vote Democrat. All the votes he missed last month and now all the votes he is now missing he is really screwing everybody but Democrats.
He is never going to return to Washington and is on his death bed right now. Him holding on to the job of Senator so no one else can be appointed to finish out his term is so Fricken wrong. He is just out to screw America right up to his last breath.
Seymore,
That old reprobate IS hiding somewhere because he’s the asshole who hand delivered the fake dossier to the FBI! Which means he’s up to his neck in the shit he caused!
I guess, by now, you’ve heard there’s a big push to #ReleasetheMemo to the American People. Many, including “former” constitutional rights attorney/representatives, on both sides of the aisles, calling for the release of the memo!
It seems many of the top law enforcement agents, of the FBI and DOJ, are scrambling to keep the heat off Hillary and Obama due to the explosive nature included in the 4 page Memo!
I’ve read, and seen, only a few articles and videos out saying the government has shutdown.
And of course, the dems blame the republicans and President Trump. Whereas the republicans and President Trump are blaming the dems!
In my opinion, the dems and rino’s ARE the only ones who’ve caused this bullshit! Again, only to keep the heat off Hillary, Obutthead and all the other criminal elements in Washington D.C.!
The truth is that he is probably dead already or not functioning in any coherent manor given there has been only one new picture of him taken since he left the hospital in Washington.
One thing is for certain he will never return to Washington as a Senator.
The only reason he is still a Senator is to block any Republican from taking over his seat in the Senate. Also to block any one from taking over his different seats on committees. Such as the Senate Armed Service Committee. So he can give the Dems an advantage.
His rotting corpus reeks so bad they can smell it all the way to swamp in Washington.
All these little pro-Democrat press release are being put out by someone else. He certainly is not doing press interviews.
At least tipsy Hillary would call her boy over at CNN and pretend to give a interview. McCain is just to far gone to speak on the phone.
Seymore,
If he IS dead, all I can say is: “Good Riddance!”
THAT must be the reason for the sudden flurry of flakes, err, Sen. Jeff Flake, AZ has been all over the news poking his opinion stupidly in same way McCain would…what is it with AZ anyway?
This week I accidentally caught tail-end of whatever talk show McCain’s daughter is on and let’s just say the nut definitely fell from the same insane tree. 😀 (she wants to go to D.C. swamp, too)
Flakes actions over the past few months have been little more than an audition for MSNBC or CNN.
Dude is so fucked.
But will end up on a board somewhere lobbying for federal contacts.
At this point I’m so far up shit creek I simply don’t care. My welfare trailer trash criminal neighbors complained about my truck I was trying to fix and had Johnny law tag it. Now my wife’s car has taken a shit. I figured given the prior shitbag family members treatment of said vehicle it would. Of course it was free and I was in a jam and they are long gone now. Really sucks rod to lug packs again after fucking up my shoulder, arm hip and back falling off a piece of equipment in Iraq. But you know they build us 13 bangers like a brick shithouse. I need to come up with a good scam because this wounded in action for real shit ain’t paying. But mammasan and the little one have to eat and all my cats will run away if I stop feeding them. What’s a poor white privileged fellah to do? Bank robbery, perhaps? Lord knows it wouldn’t admit to broken ribs, fingers, ibs or any number of trophies from Iraq and stop playing games with the money they owe me.
I see the Veterans Hospital in Denver as a Trojan horse. What the hell goes in to a three plus billion dollar hospital? What comes out? We ain’t got no Doctors. Do we? Another day, another 3 million bucks.
Where did they get the 3.1 million dollars to pay it back? Who’s now missing 3.2 million dollars? It’s all crap. Just too many doing it.
To all Veterans, say good bye to any privacy protection on your medical records anywhere. Both at the VA and your private doctor even if you do not use VA Health Care. If you are a Veteran the VA wants to have full open access to your medical records everywhere and also wants to allow free and open access to all your medical records to the following without having you sign a consent form: community healthcare providers, health plans, governmental agencies and other entities participating in electronic HIEs
Note the Government agencies. That does include all law enforcement agencies not just federal agencies.
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“Interoperability drives VA to propose patient record-sharing without hardcopy consent”
The proposed revision from VA Secretary Shulkin would allow the VA to share data to improve veteran care experience at community and HIE providers.
By Jessica Davis
January 19, 2018
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/interoperability-drives-va-propose-patient-record-sharing-without-hardcopy-consent
HIPPA? or Hippos?
The proposed rule change is downloadable in a PDF format at:
https://docs.regulations.justia.com/entries/2018-01-19/2018-00758.pdf
Does this mean that I don’t have to gather all my medical records? If they have been given access to all my records, there’s no reason we aren’t sent a copy. Or, is it just for them?
As it is now most Veterans cannot get a complete copy of their Medical Records. I do not think that will change in any way if the new rules are passed.
It seems all the VA will be doing is collecting all medical records on all Veterans and maintaining a data base used by community healthcare providers, health plans, governmental agencies and other entities participating in electronic HIEs.
The Government agencies and other entities participating in electronic HIEs. Likely means anyone involved with research or compiling surveillance records.
I saw the trash the VA sent to Social Security when I filed and it was all photo copies of photo copies that were converted to digital. Most of my records were withheld and to account for the total number of pages in my medical records. They sent a few of the same pages 5 to 10 times to account for the number of pages in my file. Withholding any pages that supported my claim with Social Security.
They did the same thing with my VA Claim file.
Honestly do not think anything will change to help Veterans access their own medical records. But it will let anybody and their brother have access to our private medical records.
The entire federal govt needs to be audited. The only reason we get in the face exposure at the VA is because so many of us are closely watching the VA’s every step.
Other Govt dept’s dont have that problem, but they should.
This is PRECISELY right on the money!!! In fact this is why OIG is again investigsting Roseburg over me. Because my friend the reporter is there to tell the truth. She has printed no less than 27 verifiable falsehoods, and other devices of deception. If she had not been there these would have gone unchallenged. This is now happening too with cell phones.
VA is gonna get something right up the wazoo because the culture of deception is so very deep there is not a single VA encounter a petient can go to that they cannot document in video now what VA is up to.
Furthermore, and this is HUGE, according the Ofice of Special Counsel which is now set up independently of OIG and is now accepting whistleblower complaint online too the VA on their website accounts by itself for more complaint of law violations than the next four agencies on the list combined. Now we can help add to that right from the seat you sit in at VA if your device can connect. While waiting in the lobby, you can log onto hhs dot gov and filed a civil rights comolaint, then click onto OIG and file an OIG complaint, then click through to the US office of special counsel and file a complaint, then click through to your doctors licensing board and file an online complaint about the doctor, then click through to the VA hotline in D.C. and file a complaint, then finally click through to each Congressman and file a complaint, and finally you can click through to VA itself and file a VA civil rits complaint. All complete with photos and records you can pull up on the exact same device.
Ask me how I know how ro do all this stuff….. then you know why I am officially banned from care. Not only do I indeed have a good friend who is a reporter who goes with me on VA (and non VA) medical visits whose words reach tens of thousands, but I also have all those links set up and am now an expert at what each agency neeeds to pursue a complaint.
And we can do ALL of this while sitting in the waiting room. VA accounts for more criminal accusations than the four next agencies combined yet only accounts for 18% of the total federal workforce according to their sight. This is but a single agency that fields 36% of all legitimate and investigated federal accusation of misconduct yet the employees only account for 18% of all fed employees.
The plums are out there to pick – keep your eyes sharp and the cameras snapping and remember Va of course will retaliate and as with me they will terminate all needed medicines BUT in this new electronic age this tactic of theirs is falling apart. Why? Because before when I called repeatedly for an apppointment the staff was told to simply ignore the call (I have a doc from the COS saying this) so if any given vet was never scheduled they could easily hide the fact. Now the new app leaves a trail. They can cancell still and they still elect to olay ganes but now there are three dozen screenshots of willful action by Roseburg to terminate needed care.
VA folks will get crushed under the mountain of data that they can no longer control. The can lie about shoving, pushing, shouting, and any number of behaviors but todays patient (all of them) have at least a forward facing cam, a back one, a microphone, ane all can be deployed stealthily in the blink of an eye.
Seymore,
Check this shit out;
From: “DAILYWIRE”
TITLED:
“‘PEOPLE WILL GO TO JAIL’: #ReleasetheMemo Trends As Republicans Call For Releasing ‘Shocking’ Classified Memo Showing ‘Fisa Abuses’ In Russian Collusion Investigation”
By; Ben Shapiro
Dated: Jan. 18, 2018
Basically, a “select few” in the DOJ and FBI, plus others: ie: Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama, are in a lot of trouble! We ain’t seen the last of this shit!
I say, IF nothing in the FISA warrant can disrupt national security – other than show criminal intent by a few – show the damn thing! Let the American People see, for themselves, what kind of “dirtbags” were running the two top law enforcement agencies in Washington D.C. during and after the 2016 Presidential campaign!
#ReleasetheMemo
______________________________
Another video you should watch is from; “The Still Report”, dated; 19 Jan. 2018 (05:22 min. long) concerning the “[Top Secret] FISA Warrant” Republicans want declassified and released to the public!
Titled:
“Wikileaks Will Match $1Million For FISA Memo”
The “founder of Wikileaks”, Julian Assange, is wanting someone to “leak” the FISA warrant to him! At which point, the American Taxpaying People WILL know exactly what was going on in our government agencies!
Let me tell you how to practice catching a Chicago politician who was president or a Clinton at blatant overt corruption.
First take a highly athletic pig and smear it from head to tail with axle grease. Then put the greased pig into a pit of mud about a foot deep. Ask a friend to simulate the friends the politicians have by tying a rope around one ankle and both hands. Then don a welding mask with the shield down.
Then jump right in and catch that pig! Once you get good at that, then go after the Chicago poitician and the Clinton but instead of coveralls you better wear a bullet proof vest instead. Some pigs just hate being caught.
*****LOOKS LIKE THEY INDICTED ONE IN INDY*******
#https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-department-veterans-affairs-police-officer-indicted-civil-rights-violation-and#
Good post — CorpsmanUp!
A little more info on the charges and what happened.
_____________
“VA police officer in Indianapolis indicted in civil rights case”
by Ryan Martin, The Indianapolis Star, 01/19/18
“A former Indianapolis-based police officer has been indicted on federal civil rights and obstruction charges.
Michael Kaim, 27, is accused of repeatedly hitting a man in the face while Kaim was employed by the Veterans Affairs Police Department in Indianapolis, according an indictment handed down by a federal grand jury on Wednesday.
The man is unidentified in court documents, and it’s unclear whether he was a patient.
The alleged attack happened in April 2017. Kaim had no legal reason to hit the man, the indictment says, and Kaim deprived the man of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure.
Furthermore, Kaim is accused of falsifying records in an effort to impede a federal investigation, the indictment says.
In the falsified report, Kaim wrote that the man resisted efforts to be escorted from a building and that he began acting aggressively, according to court documents.
The indictment says that the man actually followed orders.
The case, unsealed Thursday by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, was investigated by the FBI.
If convicted, Kaim faces up to 10 years in prison on a civil rights charge and up to 20 years on an obstruction of justice charge.
When reached by phone, Kaim’s attorney, John Kautzman, said it’s premature to comment on the case.”
Read Full article at: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2018/01/19/va-police-officer-indianapolis-indicted-civil-rights-case/1047911001/
Seymore Klearly,
You forgot the best part of this story. The wonderful reply from the Indy VAMC.
The center issued the following statement:
“The Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center works to uphold the highest traditions of human respect and law abiding behavior. It is extremely distressing that one of our former police officers has been indicted for illegal conduct. The bright light for our Veterans and staff is that it was our own internal investigation that resulted in this individual being discharged from VA employment and subsequently indicted in Federal Court. The individual named has not been convicted of any crime, and we do respect his right to due process. He is no longer an employee of the VA.
“We want to assure Veterans in need of Medical care that they will be treated with the honor and respect they deserve. We do not tolerate any disrespectful or illegal behavior by any member of our staff. We stand ready to serve Veterans and hold every employee to the highest standards of lawful and respectful behavior.”
You gotta love their BS.
f8f
01/19/2018
Dear Benjamin Krause,
You stated, “I would bet a dollar if I were a betting man that all the missing money is either moving to “off balance sheet” projects or being moved to different coffers to evade auditors from finding fraud.”
That is given!
Where are they hiding the cash? And better yet who wants to find it?
You can look into Universities [for Profit] which might lead to Real Estate companies that own chains that have invested in gambling overseas and now the chains want to buy insurance companies. You might look at who owns the biggest houses in Denver with multiple cars and have been donating to the local charities.
No matter who is stealing the U.S.Taxpayers Revenue that is intended for the soldier that has been injured: the Treasury, the IRS, The FBI, and Justice Department will delay corrective actions until 10 to 15 years—performance record from the episodes of American Greed [Ex. Madoff].
It will take You and I to point the reluctant “servants” towards those who think they hold power.
According to the USA Today “journalists” the success rate is 2%.
98% chance you and I will get our asses kick—that’s pretty good odds.
Probably the same odds Wallace had!
Sincerely,
Don Karg
If you really want to hide some cash but don’t want to set up laundering then the best way really is to hide it in options and futures.
Here is why. If you buy a stock, piece of gold, or real eatate then you have bought somehing of tangible value. Clintons used my idea extensively and made huge $$$. Anything of value must show up on a balance sheet somewhere. If a judge asks you what the total value of your assets are you must add up all things with any known value and this is whynoptions work so well for hiding cash – they have no known value until sold unlike stock.
Options and futures on the other hand when purchased are paid for with cash but once posessd they have no intrinsic value. Any given option or futures contract might at some future date be sold for some value but it is just as likely that an option can end up worthless or worse set you back as a liability if you play the real high risk style. An option has no value at all unless and until it is sold and it is impossible to say with certainty what that value might be. It does not show up on the balance sheet because essentially an option of a future is a wager placed about future prices.
It is like having a betting marker for the superbowl. It might be worth a fortune or it might be worth nothing. SOme people mihht even buy the marker at a different price than face value. Lets say the quarterback of the team you bet on gets injured before the game. Lets say you paid $100 on odds that if you win you get $200. When the QB got injured somebody offers you $25 for the marker necause now the odds are much worse. This is how options work in a way. You bet on a future price though instead of a score but it is still just a marker. You can sell it, trade it, and excersize them but until they are excerisized and sold they have no value.
Big companies do this ALL THE TIME for their executives. Ever see an exec worth millions per year go to work for $1 per year? It is done all the time. What he is given are twenty year options on the dompany stock but not the stock because stock is attached to the physical company and has worth by itself like cash. $20,000,000 of of options to purchase stock in the future can be written and issued for compensation but unless they are excersized (sold) then they technically have no value. They are like betting markers so when somebody like Clinton is asked by Congress how how much they are worth the options don’t count. Even if sold for billions later, until they are sold the money is essentially off books.
They do not accrue interest and the only way they do show up is as an expenditure only – until sold or excersized. Options are often sold for years before they become due. Warren Buffet is what he is because he created a class of 50 year options. None of those options has value by itself but they are traded for big dollars on the hunch that when they come due they will worth big dollars but until they are ACTUALLy exchanged for cash theynhave no value thatbis taxable because you cannot say if they are or are not worthless when sold eventually.
It is a huge market and carries this advantage and is a GREAT way to get cash off the books for sometimes a very long time. Options are often used to try to pay off the crooked because it takes so very much to figure out where they came from and what they are worth.
Clowns, a name truly befitting their jest. A different approach my be needed, I’d like to recommend the W. Edwards Deming Management Method. Because they obviously have no management skills whatsoever
Just a quick story about VA IT. I have had a Premium Myhealthevet account for about 8 years. I went to pull my recent VA labs, a radiology report and physician notes from the BlueButton option. Hmmm, I try for about 10 days and it says updates in progress. So, I call the Myhealthevet help desk. The guy said okay, I will put a ticket in on the issue – we have a lot of problems with VISN 3 records. I say thanks and hang up.
About ten days later, it still isn’t pulling the information and I send the radiology records to a private doctor. So, I call again. The guy looks up the ticket number given me by the first guy and starts to chuckle. I said, what’s so funny? He tells me, hey man this ticket has only been in the system for 10 days. I ask him, “well, how long do these things take.” His answer? “Weeks” Six weeks later I got notice the issue was fixed.
We also can’t make appointments through Myhealthevet in my VISN.
Anyway, I go to the ROI clerk to get my records at my next visit. The clerk tells me, yep, our computers can’t communicate with other VISNs, we have to fax a request for info a vet wants from records at another hospital.
That’s the same story I have heard for ten years. In the meantime. Doctors sit and pound at keyboards for 20 minutes of a 30 minute appointment. No wonder the VA is so screwed up.
I’ve said this before. If Congress approves funding for X, the agency must use the money for X, or they have to go back to Congress for permission to use it for Y. It is against appropriations law to use money for something other than what congress intended. The IG is catching on, but I wonder if a whistle blower reported this.
I am having trouble understanding this though. I did a search on “medical support and compliance” to see a definition of what this slush is used for. The definition from an appropriations for VA in 2011 says, “The medical support and compliance account provides funds for the expenses related to the administration of hospitals, nursing homes, and domiciliaries, billing and coding activities, public health and environmental hazard programs, quality and performance management, medical inspection, human research oversight, training programs and continuing education, security, volunteer operations, and human resources management.”
So yes, it is a giant slush fund that catches everything not big enough or important enough to have its own fund. If you mix nursing home operation with medical inspection, which one gets funded if the appropriation is short? If you mix human resource management with human research oversight, you can bet corners are going to be cut in human research oversight since human resources will always win. VA directors want their new secretary hired. They don’t give a shit about that volunteer research subject.
What confuses me about this is Ben’s linked IG report shows a release date of January 2018. When searching for that definition above, I found an IG report dated September 2017. It is definitely 2 different reports. The one I found is VA OIG 15-05020-278. Ben’s report says $3.1 million was misused. In the September report, it found the exact same things dating to 2010. MS&C funds were misused for IT, but in that report, it was over $92 million misused. McDonald wrote a letter to the Comptroller of the US saying the violation happened between 2010 to 2014. In the letter, McDonald admits this slush fund was used instead of their IT fund, and claimed it was to speed delivery of claims processing. McDonald blamed “two former Deputy Chief Business Officers” for the scam.
Now, the September 2017 report says the Interim Undersecretary for Health (Shulkin’s replacement??) agreed to establish oversight to prevent this lawbreaking from continuing. This happened under Shulkins watch, and its clear from both IG reports that it continues to happen under Shulkins watch.
My question is, why is the IG not pushing harder for stiffer penalties for this? Why is congress not throwing a fit over this misappropriation of funds? If “medical inspection” means making sure facilities are clean and equipment is sterilized, does using that money for IT explain why the VA uses dirty equipment on veterans? Same with “public health and environmental hazard programs. If that funding is spent on IT, does that explain while mold is growing? Roaches are infesting VA hospitals?
The IG needs to get off its ass and push a little harder for accountability. VA Chief Business flunkies, likely with the full knowledge of flunkies above them like Shulkin have pissed away over $100 million on IT while shortchanging other VA operations that directly affect veterans health. If that guy in Atlanta can be charged with felonies for falsifying records, why is this any different?
What if there are slush funds under the scabs of slush funds, making the VA an *ideal* place for USA to fund dark ops or really anything off the accountability radar…all for the vets….right!?
Yeah, I can’t figure it out nam. Both IG reports are about using MS&C funding to pay for a claims processing system. I can’t imagine why they would have to waste $100 million over 7 years for a system that is not yet improving claims processing.
I suspect there is a contractor behind this system, and they keep demanding more to fix their system. Or upgrade it. You have to ask why the VA CIO is not on the hot seat in congress? Did the IG report in September 2017 cause the CIO Rob Thomas to retire as reported on September 20, 2017? Then he went to work for Leidos, a goobermint contractor after he retired.
Do a search on VA OIT for some interesting stuff.
If you think of it, why would that IT contract be any different than The building contract for the new Denver VA. No oversight of cost overruns in the contract, so they end up with an almost $2 billion dollar palace and half the services.
Same thing is happening with this claims processing contract. Let the bid for $10 million, then every year, overrun the budget by $15-20 million. Congress doesn’t know any better because no new money was requested for IT…they only know the MS&C budget was fully funded. Yeah, Mcdipshit sent a letter, but unless Congress asks questions, nobody cares.
If congress did care, they would be requesting investigations into what impact this misappropriation had on other VA operations that were shortchanged to fund this boondoggle.
Seriously? 5 different mobile apps? No wonder VAs IT systems are so fucked up when you have 5 different systems inputting data into who knows how many different systems. And it all has to mesh with data coming in from other systems.
Somehow though I think the system used to process VA employee payroll is humming right along without a single fault.
By the way, Leidos has the contract to provide seamless medical records between VA and DOD. The contract is called VA T4. Contract number VA118-16-D-1024.
Interestingly, if you search on that contract number, you get a voa dot va dot gov address showing a number of VA IT contractors all under a T4NG listing. Did Leidos get the main contract, then subcontract to others?
That contract number shows 4 entries under that number, all going to a “Veteran owned small business” called Innovative Management Concepts. It looks like a company started by a couple of retired Air Force vets.
Booz Allen and IBM are on that same listing, as well as some other familiar large federal contractors.
That’s where USAF Information Officers go to retire. 😀
Off Topic – Sump’m Sump’m Coming Up, and then Going Down
“https://saraacarter.com/2018/01/18/a-bombshell-house-intelligence-report-exposing-extensive-fisa-abuse-could-lead-to-the-removal-of-senior-government-officials/”
Nutter,
Here’s two reports of the FISA warrant and what the GOP wants.
1.
From: “DailyWire”
By: Ben Shapiro
Dated: Jan 18, 2018
Titled:
“‘People Will Go To Jail’: #ReleasetheMemo Trends As Republicans Call For Releasing ‘Shocking’ Classified Memo Showing ‘FISA Abuses’ In Russian Collusion Investigation”
This is a must read for everyone!
_____________________
2. From: “The Still Report”
Dated: Jan. 19, 2018
Video duration 05:22 minutes long.
Titled:
“Wikileaks Will Match $1 Million For FISA Memo”
Trust me. IF Julian Assange gets someone to “leak” that memo, he’ll put it out to everyone in the world!
From other sources, the FISA “memo” names names and all kinds of illegal transactions plus lots of orher information as well!
It’s a “treasure trove of the corruption within our government!”
And, I got a sneaky suspicion someone, a patriotic American, WILL leak it to him!
Good article: The Hill: VA has a tendency to manipulate science for its own benefits, not the Veterans.
The OIG chief was caught manipulating things too for his own benefit on the company dime. And desk. And windows. His actions wouldn’t normally be called science but the results are nearly identical to the results of what VA does call science so its the same thing really.
Have you sent your contribution to the VA million vet genetic program yet? Don’t send your sample in a ribbed container (for her pleasure) if you can avoid it because it clogs the machine.
😀 😀 😀 coffee intake via wrong tubes 😀 😀 😀
at the outpatient clinic in Wyoming, MI there exist’s an example of total waste like never before. Most of the log in apparatus the vets use their cards on do not work and have signs on the OUT OF ORDER which are miss spelled. For months the TVs in the waiting rooms were not hooked up. Than they installed a second TV but now only one works. The electronic high tech boards in class rooms do not work. All over the place are notices “Out of Order”. The entire place was build to function as a place for fine arts not a medical place. Bullshit art works are all over. Mobils and stabils hang all over. The best functioning department is the Dental, Optical and Phys therapy department. By the way, the most efficient place are the vendors in the Bldg. But a lot of people run around in suits and look important but never go any where or do anything
I bet a dollar that the snack vending machines are all 100% operational at that facility. I bet any malfunction there is corrected faster than a Twinkee machine can squirt cream filling into four hundred cakes. We are talking blink of the eye stuff. Just a hunch.
I won’t take that bet. But you are right.
Something tells me they did not get rid of all the incessant masturbators at the VA OIG.
This out from;
“Military.com”
Dated: 18 January 2018
From: Amy Bushatz
Titled ;
“How a Government Shutdown Would Impact Pay, Benefits!”
The VA IS claiming a short term shutdown, a couple of weeks, would NOT affect disability payments to veterans. A long term shutdown would!
Good article!
The complicit OIG strikes again! Written in black and white, but still no accountability regarding VA practices. If this were a civilian entity, those responsible would be charged with wire fraud, because the report does not show receipts of payment, it just says they made them pay it back with borrowed money that Shulkin just asked for! See the scheme, “Run to Congress for money, before the OIG Report aka “Mad Magazine” is published.
Being a LONG-time reader of ‘Mad Magazine’, I have to say the OIG is not even good enough for the *lessor* magazine called ‘Cracked’.
However, I would say they are mad as a crackhead with a broken pipe at the VAOIG to be fumbling as much as they do…anyone else thinking it’s on-purpose, kinda the way the VA’s herd of attorneys cannot get it right…unless it benefits the VA?
VAOIG needs a complete and thorough enema and place disgruntled veterans in VAOIG’s place. Then the purge will begin. Self-purging will start with rats jumping ship as soon as VA kryptonite accountability is shining, then the Disgruntled Veteran OIG Teams can start purge stage 2. Stage 3 is simply letting some bacon-hungry canines loose and let them find the remaining meatsacks. Done. (and ‘Mad Magazine’ is preserved)
I have an idea. Obviously the VA consistently is being discovered as having “outdated” operating manuals from which such numerous and expensive errors arise. Same with the DBC. The OIG discovered massive non compliance with federal law by DBC and attributed the faux pax of sending hundred if not thousands of vets into VA limbo called PRF Cat One to “outdated facility procedure manuals”. This was confirmed with carbon dating techniques. OIG also in that case noted that the reason all these vets were being terminated from care was simply outdated facility procedure manuals.
So maybe Dr. Shulkin here is an idea I call thinking outside the box.
Lets remove ALL the facility procedure manuals and ask the government printing office to instead install copies of the actual federal regulations and laws onto the shelves and then with time and patience we can train VA to follow those instructions instead of the ones they make up themselves? Since from nearly about ten years old most Americans are trained in the art of understanding what a law is and the imoortance of following it, then the transition should take no more than ten or twenty years to switch senior staff from “procedure manuals” to “legal requirements”.
We could get some high school civics classes involved to help tutor the VA employees for the simple things. Expressions like “intent to change appropriations” could be translated for the VA folks by high schoolers into non-VA language so they could understand the new books. I this instance the translation “intent to change appropriations” would of course be explained by the high schoolers translating for VA folks that the common phrase instead is “ripping somebody off”. This is just an example of course.
Lets get rid of the policy manuals and use the bookshelfs for books with the actual laws in them. It wouldn’t change a fucking thing in the way they act of course, but the man hours of continuously updating procedure manuals they don’t read anyway could be better spent on “official time”, right?
Now, how would a high schooler define “official time”? Hmmmmm.
what makes you think the VA employees would read the manuals. I’m sure some do cause somebody turns on the lights and unlocks the doors. But with the exception of a handful of people there, at best you get 30% performance out of 80% of the employees
Peter,
Here’s my opinion.
There are some good people in the VA. The only problem with that is:
Why aren’t they coming forward to complain about the corruption, waste, fraud and abuse they see?
That old argument of: “I don’t want to lose my job!” IS getting old! It’s complete unadulterated bullshit!
When the majority, and I’m talking 80% plus, of good employees start coming out from the darkness and shadows and start reporting the upper management, then I’ll believe they are good employees!
Until that happens —-
FUCK THE VA!
FUCK THE VA’s employees!
FUCK “Shithead Shulkin”!
FUCK THE AFGE!
FUCK THE AFL-CIO for allowing the AFGE to be the MOST corrupt union in American history!
We trick the AFGE herd into reading the manuals by placing faux reference on cover to performance bonus changes for the year…and that’s how you snag an engorged piggy.
“Books” no longer exist. Everything on a F’ing computer.
How convenient that all IT is in the shitter…can’t access proper protocol in the manuals
Damn, I should have stuck it out, in the early 1970’s, with computer programming. Just think, I coulda been a very rich individual today. IF I had started working for the VA!
Of course, with my luck, I’d have probably been reported, arrested, prosecuted and LOCKED up for ripping off taxpayers and veterans! -“IF”- I had been as dishonest as many people working for VA throughout the decades.
Trouble is, I try to be as honest and trustworthy as possible. Meaning, I’d have probably been FIRED for reporting illegal activities committed by VA employees!
_____________________
A little off subject, yet worth noting.
Last night I read an article about the impending possible government shutdown. I don’t remember the exact title, it’s something like: [paraphrasing]
“Dems want 800,000 DACA get special treatment over active duty military being paid!”
The interesting thing isn’t only the article. It’s what someone in the comments section wrote about both “parties”!
Basically stating: [paraphrasing again]
The dems are exposing exactly what their doing and don’t care who knows it. And,
The republicans are NOW in charge, yet they, repubs, have all the evidence to lock up many elected and appointed officials. And They don’t do anything!
The last sentence is very telling;
“The Republicans are the Democrats lap dogs!” This last sentence is a quote!
I don’t know about y’all, but I’m starting to get that deep dark feeling where we veterans are being used, abused and screwed again!
Elf, do you have the reference for the above? Sure like to post this. – – – Nutter
Nutter,
Google the “phrase” I’ve written. It’s should take you right to the article!
I’m not home right now and don’t have the paper that I’ve written the title of the article!
Btw,
It looks like “…the house has passed a short term budget bill”, and it’s the Senate which will kill it, which would fund the government until mid February!
IF the government shuts down, the dems will 100% own it!
The dems have said, quote: “No DACA, No Wall!”
There’s lots of shit taking place. One: is where President Trump sent ICE agents to San Francisco and northern California to arrest and deport illegal immigrants. Secondly: “The Department of Homeland Security” is planning to arrest elected and appointed officials harboring illegal immigrants! Third: Gov. Brown has stated quote: “If businesses cooperates with ICE, they will be arrested and prosecuted!”
These Govenors, mayors, city council members and many others ARE in violation of the immigration laws. The DOJ is not giving any of them any slack! It’s about time for them to be held accountable!
Once President Trump cleans up what previous administrations have caused, he then may be able to tackle other hard pressed issues; ie: The VA, IRS, and other agencies!
Then, maybe he’ll start going after the corrupt VSO’s! That’s what I’m waiting for!
Thank you my Brother Elf.
Hey Elf,
Any word on old Lame Brain?
Is he truly just dodging Washington because of his connections with Fusion GPS, or is he truly on his death bed and doing every thing he can to screw things up in Washington by preventing someone from being appointed to take his place?
Probably a good measure of both!
Seymore,
Last I heard (of the reprobate) he was in Italy!
What he was doing there is unknown as of YET!
Nutter,
Here’s the article, from: “True Pundit”
Dated; Jan.18, 2018
By; “True Pundit Staff”
Titled;
“Democrats Would Rather Protect 800,000 Illegal Immigrants Than Pay America’s Active Duty Military!”
These people, dems, are sick! And, anyone siding with them are just as sick!
Thanks Elf. These DummyDrops could care less about who their hurting with their actions. Oh yeah right, we care about people, other than our own, and especially us Vets. Geesh.
This issue could of been more finely tuned to deal with during ex-POTUS Obumba term(s) in office. (no slack back, at least I respected BO with a POTUS title)
And, I watched a recent documentary on the Opiate Opioid crisis, epidemic, and no mention of VA’s involvement, or responsibility.
Plus, the VA is really failing short in providing us with facilities specifically dealing with up-to-date Pain Management Modalities (acupuncture, warm water therapy, CBT, massage [all types, including deep tissue, etc.], muscle stimulation, yoga, or what ever has been proven to give pain relieve (oh yes, under FDA’s BS approval), all under one roof.
But hey, let us not think, that’d be a little too much now wouldn’t it?
Once again a Veteran Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona have a Veteran is suing plus OIG VA: VETERANS AFFAIRS IN DEBT $ 247 MILLION JUDGEMENT FUND FOR CONTACT DISPUTES PLUS GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN THEY BLAME THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY WHAT IS NEXT?
Arnold,
In my opinion,
IF the government, which has been run by republicans for a year, were really interested in bringing elected and appointed officials [in ALL agencies, including the VA] to trial, we would NOT be seeing the bullshit coming out in large numbers.
Evidently, the last four or five administrations, especially the last one, caused so much “in your face corruption” it’s truly going to be hard going for awhile!
Just this morning, I’ve read where “Gov. Brown (D-Ca) stated “If businesses cooperates with ICE, they will be prosecuted!” Because ICE is planning to raid, and arrest thousands of illegal immigrants nationwide. And, where “The Dept. of Homeland Security” plans to start arresting elected and appointed officials in a few states for harboring illegal immigrants!
Think about that! He’s basically telling “American Business owners” to break federal law!
Damn, our Republic has been turned upside down! When non-citizens receive special treatment over citizens, there’s definitely something wrong!
(Don’t you remember when Obama raided the choice program and gave the monies to the illegal immigrants?)
Then, we’re seeing the VA’s MASSIVE corruption, waste, fraud and abuse on a daily basis. I don’t believe it was reported as much before as it is now! NOW, we’re seeing corruption in every agency!
OK, that’s all I got to say about this!
VA fraud and abuse was opened with President Reagan’s pen and ink changes. There were so many “cash” out doors for employees to dip their fingers into. And though President Obama closed the travel pay door there are still “write a check doors” that are wide open with no real accounting of the spending. Like the IT door.
And I can’t get my RBA fixed with missing 8 months of back clinic OPTR and 5 month of seizure clinic OPTR missing even with a CAVC Court order. The VAGC has to report every 15 days what they are doing. Not–The just say they are working on it which I doubt. Have 3 reports like that now and another due next week.
Arnold,
You ask what is next? You know what is next!
$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$
and then after that
$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$.
Even more later. This is what is ALWAYS next at VA.