VAOIG “softened” report of vets’ deaths
Last month, I wrote about the Veterans’ Affairs Department Office of the Inspector General’s report after I actually read the thing, and not the media’s translation which benefited the President’s speech to the American Legion Convention on the day of the report’s release. The media told us that the report said that no veternas’ deaths were caused by the delay of their care in Phoenix, but the report stated otherwise. Now, CBS has noticed it, too;
Two of the doctors who first blew the whistle on the veterans’ deaths in Phoenix say the inspector general botched the investigation and went too easy on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
One says the IG engaged in a whitewash of what happened there, bowing to pressure from inside the agency, reports CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews.
The issue surrounds the investigation into whether more than 40 veterans at the Phoenix VA died while waiting to see the doctor. The IG’s final report in August concluded that it “[could not] conclusively assert” that long wait times “caused the deaths of these veterans.”
Yeah, that number looks like it’s actually 293 veterans who died, not necessarily from waiting for treatment, but it proves that the IG report was flawed in the research.
Our source, who works at VA headquarters and who spoke exclusively to CBS News, said officials inside the agency asked for a revision of the first draft. That’s standard practice, but in this case the source said it amounted to pressure on Inspector General Richard Griffin to add a line to water down the report.
“The organization was worried that the report was going to damn the organization,” the whistle-blower said. “And therefore it was important for them to introduce language that softened that blow.”
Of course, we knew it was flawed and watered down because we actually read the report, instead of just taking the media’s word for it.
Thanks to one of our ninjas for the link.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
Internal pressure? How about a bit of external pressure from the toe of someone’s boot?
It’s a government agency. It is entrenched in itself. Its administration is populated with sandcrabs who are only there to get their paychecks and pensions and don’t give a crap about anything else. They’d be hollering loudly if they were on the receiving end of their own indifference, but they aren’t.
That’s what it boils down to. Change that, and you might fix it.
Gee, the VA OIG doing a less-than-adequate job.
Mr. Sealy Chippendale would thoroughly approve.
Agreed.
The VAOIG is a broken and “controlled” organization.
But it my understanding that they are about to be having some problems in the near future.
If you’re an “IG” anywhere in the government and you BOW to pressure, you should not have a job.
The whole point of the IG is to present the FACTS as they are to the commander, secretary, etc.
It’d be nice if the high mucky mucks in the US Government, for once, got held accountable for SOMETHING. This IG and the whole staff there should be fired, plain and simple.