“A politician who will not support this bill and the efforts to clean up what has been a veteran health care disaster for years simply does not stand with American veterans and their families.”
The Department of Veterans Affairs fired Toby Mathew from the position of director at the Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, LA after transferring him to another facility in a non-supervisory role.
In a legal memo, Aaron Robison, an attorney at the VA’s Office of General Counsel, stated that Mathew was removed from his position on April 13, “based on charges related to general misconduct and failure to follow policy and provide effective oversight of the Center’s credentialing and privileging program.”
Numerous complaints were lodged against Mathew back in September 2016. Those complaints were sent by an anonymous employee to David Shulkin when he was the undersecretary for health. Former VA Secretary Robert McDonald as well as other officials within the VA detailed more than two dozen allegations of misconduct against Mathew.
One of the complaints sent to Secretary Shulkin read,
“It is the combined opinion of a significant group of senior staff including both clinical and administrative service chiefs that the situation here has reached the point where action is required. I am requesting and strongly suggesting that Mr. Mathew be put on leave effective on receipt of this document, while you investigate these charges. This man displays ALL the signs and symptoms of someone suffering from extreme, malignant narcissism.”
The memo, dated April 14, 2017, comes after the VA reassigned Mathew on February 1 to the VISN 16 office in Missouri, while the Office of Accountability Review completed an investigation into the allegations at the Overton Brooks VA Medical Center.
At the time, the VA stated:
“We promptly and thoroughly investigate all allegations of serious misconduct and, where such allegations are substantiated, observe all due process while we discharge our solemn duty to maintain the efficient and effective operation of the VA.”
In the past, the VA, as well as many other government agencies, would reassign problem employees to other locations, effectively moving the problem away from scrutiny. That practice has long angered veterans and whistleblowers.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last Thursday establishing a new office at the VA to hold wayward employees accountable and protect whistleblowers suffering retaliation as a result of their disclosures. This office, unlike the Office of Accountability Review, has all employees under its purview. The office will also protect whistleblowers from retribution who find themselves targeted by management in the course of their disclosures.“I smiled when I heard this was happening Thursday,” said Brandon Coleman, a noted Phoenix VA whistleblower.
“I applaud President Trump for not waiting to take action but instead continuing his push for accountability at the VA with this executive order. I think we have a VA secretary in Dr. David Shulkin that wants to bring transparency to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and setting up a whistleblower division is a great way to bring whistleblowers to the table instead of trying to destroy our careers, as the VA has done time and time again over the past three years.”
Coleman added, “Whistleblowers are the only ones who have continued to tell the truth at great risk to our professional careers within the VA.”
Advocacy organization Concerned Veterans for America applauded the announcement.
“We appreciate that President Trump is taking steps to fix the VA’s toxic culture, but the job will not be finished with just this executive order,” CVA policy director Dan Caldwell said in a statement.
“This new office will only be effective if it is coupled with strong accountability legislation, like the VA Accountability First Act, to speed up the termination process for bad employees. Identifying bad VA employees won’t do any good if you still can’t fire them.”
VA Secretary David Shulkin has endorsed existing accountability legislation, and although the VA Accountability First Act of 2017 has passed the House, the legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
“We’re taking a hard stance that we want this employee removed, and we do not believe the current rules allow us to do that quickly enough,” Shulkin said recently on Fox News. “We need changes in the law, and I need the authority to remove these people immediately.”
Secretary Shulkin came out for the legislation after he found he couldn’t immediately fire an employee caught watching pornography at work while treating patients. Now seven key senators are backing this bill after it was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).
Senators supporting the bill are Republicans Tim Scott, Jeff Flake, James Inhofe, Thom Tillis, Todd Young, Pat Toomey and Mike Lee. While the VA Accountability First Act of 2017 passed the House, only 10 Democrats voted in support. The ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, Democratic Rep. Tim Walz, voted against the bill, and it is possible that Democrats could kill the bill, as they have done in the past.
It makes no sense at all to complain that VA Secretary Shulkin is not taking this issue seriously and then tie his hands when he is trying to fix the problem.
I cannot understand how any senator, regardless of party affiliation, would not support this bill. The only possible reason is that senators who vote against such a bill are in the pocket of government employee unions and special interest groups. A politician who will not support this bill and the efforts to clean up what has been a veteran health care disaster for years simply does not stand with American veterans and their families.
As Americans, we owe it to our veterans to fix the broken VA system. Allowing politicians to get away with just moving protected bureaucratic employees from one place to the next cannot be allowed to continue. If an employee needs to go, then fire them. We must give our leaders the tools to do their job. Call the politicians who won’t support us—veterans like you and me who dedicated our lives to our country.
This is about our veterans—you, me, as well as those who never served but we protected. Make that call, send that letter, and don’t let the politicians who don’t support the American veteran get away with it any longer.
