Now the VA

Now the VA

Wil

8/25/2012

Hello Colleagues and Guests,

For those of you who may have missed this article, I'm including the
text. First the GSA, now it appears the VA?

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Following is the text:

Nearly $100,000 worth of coffee break refreshments was among the
itemized expenses revealed Friday from two controversial Veterans
Affairs conventions, whose combined price tag topped $5 million.

The House Committee on Veterans Affairs released a list of expenditures
from one of the conferences held in Orlando, Fla. The biggest expense of
the $2.9 million event was participant travel, which cost $1.2 million.
But the VA Department also spent $113,000 on staff travel, $863 on a
karaoke night and $52,000 on the Patton-style video that surfaced
earlier this week.

A follow-up conference cost an additional $2.4 million, though the
committee didn't release itemized expenses from that event.

As we learn more about these conferences, I am more and more concerned
about the clear lack of leadership, accountability, and transparency at
VA, Rep. Jeff Miller, the committee chairman, said in a written
statement. To see that VA employees were treated to tens of thousands
of dollars in refreshments, a $300,000 Audio Visual Center and a night
of Karaoke does not invoke confidence in employees who are entrusted
with the nation's monies for veterans.

Some of this material should have never been produced and misuse of
taxpayer funds is completely unacceptable. These events took place over
a year ago and we have already adopted new rules that reflect our
continuing commitment to safeguarding tax dollars, the Department of
Veteran Affairs said in another statement with regard to the video
content used during training conferences.

The price tag on those conferences far exceeds the roughly $830,000
spent by the General Services Administration at a 2010 Las Vegas
conference, a lavish affair that drew outrage on Capitol Hill.

The House Veterans Affairs Committee and Oversight and Government Reform
Committee both are looking into the conferences. Sen. Susan Collins,
R-Maine, also fired off a letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric
Shinseki earlier this month posing questions about the wasteful
spending allegations, which she called alarming.

The Department of Veterans Affairs claims to be cracking down on its
conference policy in light of the allegations.

Allegations of misconduct received by the VA Office of Inspector
General regarding two training conferences in 2011 are unacceptable,
the department said in a written statement, adding that it is
cooperating with the investigation. It said Shinseki plans to hold
accountable anyone who misused taxpayer dollars or violated our
standards of conduct.

The IG's office confirmed it began the review in late April.

Since then, a series of interviews have uncovered questionable
activities and we have notified both the secretary and Congress of these
issues, the office said in a written statement, adding that all
indications are that the conferences were for legitimate training
purposes but investigators are checking whether laws and ethics rules
were followed.

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Wil Haines, CPO
MaxCare Bionics
Avon IN