Prosecutions, firings needed at VA to root out corruption, IG testifies

By Mark Flatten | Washington Examiner

Prosecuting Department of Veterans Affairs officials who broke the law and firing those who deliberately manipulated reported wait times to hide long backlogs is the surest way of ending fraudulent practices, the agency’s interim inspector general told a House committee Monday.

“It comes down to accountability of the senior leadership out at these facilities,” Richard Griffin said when asked how the scandal-ridden system of delivering care to veterans can be fixed. “Once someone loses his job or gets criminally charged for doing this, it will not longer be a game and that will be the shot heard round the system.”

Griffin’s statement came during a late-night hearing of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs to probe the ever-widening crisis at VA, where multiple investigations have documented deliberate manipulation of patient wait time data to hide long delays in care.

at Washington Examiner.