Shinseki “committed to restoring integrity” at VA
Ric Shinseki, the secretary of the Veterans’ Affairs Department responds to the initial report from the Office of the Inspector General in the pages of USAToday. He says that he’s “committed to restoring integrity” at the Department. Well, see, he shouldn’t have to do that. If the people directly under Shinseki had been thinking of veterans first, there would be nothing to “restore” in the first place.
The findings of the interim report of VA’s Office of Inspector General on the Phoenix VA Health Care System are reprehensible to me and to this department, and we are not waiting to set things straight.
I immediately directed the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to contact each of the 1,700 veterans in Phoenix waiting for primary care appointments in order to bring them the care they need and deserve.
I had previously directed an independent site team to comprehensively assess scheduling and administrative practices in Phoenix. This team began its work in April, and we are already taking action consistent with the recommendations of the interim inspector general’s report. We will fully implement his remaining recommendations.
It was the climate at the VA that created this problem. This didn’t happen overnight that more than 1700 veterans at one hospital were ignored. Eric Shinseki has placed his own employees ahead of the people they’ve been charged to serve. He supported the President’s plan to make service-connected veterans buy their own insurance, he absolutely failed getting the new GI Bill benefits to veterans attending college in a timely manner, he didn’t stop the VA from funding expensive parties across the country for employees, he can’t make the VA overcome the backlogs of claims and now this, the final straw, veterans waiting months for appointments for the care that they earned.
He shouldn’t have to “restore integrity” if his leadership in the agency had caused the loss of integrity in the first place.
This blog has been calling for Shinseki’s resignation for years, before anyone else recognized that he’s just an incompetent boob. Daniel sent us this video on our Facebook page last night;
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
shitseki, why don’t you do the honorable thing and step in front of a bus, and I mean that literally…
I wonder if Shineski ever bothered to read the plaque in front of his building… the one that reads: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan”
JOnn I can’t add anything better. Except if Sinseki wants to restore integrity, start by firing his senior leaders, then stepping down. That would go miles towards integrity in my book.
Wouldn’t that require him to first know the definition of integrity?
Yes.
Word is he has contacted his supplier in China, and is ordering us all some berets. That will help.
No doubt.
Yeah, a new hat will make everything better. Worked before, didn’t it?
Shinseki is apparantly an EEO quota and has been for years. Does anyone recall who instituted “black berets for everyone”?
Currently, the VA problems happened on his watch. If it existed before (and I’m not sure that it didn’t), it was his job to clean house. That’s still his job. Clean house down to the hospital administrator level, all the way up to and including himself.
Then commit honorable seppuku in the style of his ancestors. Or, as suggested above, step in front of a bus.
Also, remember, he said he could do the job when he was hired.
Wrong again, Beret Boy!!
I’m glad to see that he’s committed to this endeavor…Wait a minute, what’s he been doing this whole time? Maybe he can give everybody a black beret and all this will just go away.
“He means well, bless his heart.”
That is exactly what my sister-in-law said about her dog. He didn’t.
Why is it that the VA goes this on a recurring basis?
In the 1970s, the VA hospitals were worse than Soviet hospital. They were filthy, full of bugs and rats, and nobody gave a damn what happened to the patients.
So why are we having a blast from the past with the VA? The S(&T rolls downhill, you know, as does the attitude. The VA has enough employees to handle the paperwork, but they just don’t give a crap, so there’s no difference between now and the 1970s. I want to know why.
Someone please explain this to me, using words of one syllable or les. Thanks.
Ricky Shitstain can’t see the writing on the wall… he’s Obama’s buttboy, just like those under him at the VA.
I think the problem is that the VA bureaucracy is more concerned with their jobs than the job. They are never fired so it’s all about the next bonus and the next promotion. A good eval is more important than actually serving the patients they are charged with helping. There is little said about the medical staff, they seem to be doing the best they can under the conditions being forced on them. It’s not about money either, the VA budget has gone up to astronomical levels in the past decade. No, it is the masses of feather merchants making 100 K plus salaries that don’t contribute to the actual mission. The whole system is rotten,from education, disability,and medical services. I say pick out a hundred or so top administrators, hang them in the public square as a warning to the others. Cut the pay of the rest and let it be known that federal prison time awaits any person that is ever caught pencil whipping another performance report. The word that comes to mind is Draconian. Do your jobs or suffer forever. Ric is afraid to break anyones rice bowl, he needs to be fired, disgraced,and lose his federal pension. At the least!
He ordered VA facilities in Phoenix to immediately contact the 1700 on their secret list. Great, that takes care of the ones that have been publicly acknowledged. How about the rest? Does anybody believe that this was really limited to just one place? Especially after what happened with that kid in Kansas City?
If Shinseki really didn’t know this was going on, he should be shitcanned for being utterly worthless at his job. A leader, manager, supervisor, whatever, is responsible for knowing how their outfit is performing. If his subordinates were in fact able to keep him in the dark, it’s because he was too fucking lazy to ever actually check on anything (you know, do his job). If he did know, then he is culpable in this ungodly mess and should be looking forward to his long engagement with the inside of a Federal prison cell.
This is also on Obama. At best, he appointed a worthless lazy piece of shit to an important job because he doesn’t really care about vets. At worst, he knowingly appointed a dick-sucking yes-man to keep the problem quiet. Either way, he demonstrated an egregious lack of respect, concern, or compassion for our nation’s veterans. Some commander-in-chief!
My assessment mirrors yours, Other Whitey.
If Shinseki knew, then he’s culpable – and needs to go. I kinda doubt he can be criminally prosecuted; I don’t think anything he did personally likely violated the law. But you never know.
If Shinseki didn’t know, then he’s incompetent – and needs to go. He’s probably legally clear in this case, as it’s generally damned hard to prosecute someone for being incompetent in performing their duties.
Either way, he needs to go.
Ex-f^%*ing-actly, Hondo.
“We will fully implement his remaining recommendations.”
Sure, and I notice one thing lacking from the OIG’s recommendations. ACTUALLY HOLDING SOMEONE RESPONSIBLE!
Good Lord, I want this man to at least pretend like he was an officer in the United States Army once upon a time. You want to know why there’s a distinct lack of integrity in your command, Director Shinseki? Look in the f-ing mirror.
Canning the head of the VA will do no good (although it certainly should be done) unless the bureaucrats entrenched in the organization are also fired. They are the ones who did this. Plenty of folks allowed and/or encouraged it, of course, but it took all those self-serving bureaucrats to implement the corruption.
Haha, that’s funny… oh, wait, he was serious.