VA’s missing $54 million

The Washington Post reports that there is no accounting for about $54 million worth of purchases of prosthetic devices for veterans;

Employees in the purchasing department of a VA hospital in the Bronx had used government purchase cards like credit cards at least 2,000 times to buy prosthetic legs and arms for veterans.

Each time they swiped the cards, it was for $24,999. That was precisely one dollar below VA’s charging limit for purchase cards.

When word reached Congress about the $54,435,743 worth of prosthetics bought under such odd circumstances over two years — the subject of an inspector general investigation announced Monday — lawmakers demanded details. But they were told there was no documentation.

According to the Post, VA officials, when first questioned about the purchases had planned on telling Congress that the records were lost in the flooding that resulted from Hurricane Sandy, until they realized that timeline wouldn’t fit the circumstances since the Congressional inquiry was about a month before the storm.

So, the VA turned to their perpetual liar-in-chief, Ric Shinseki;

The letter that finally went to Congress, signed by Shinseki, said simply:

“No contract files exist” and “there is no evidence of full and open competition” for the prosthetics bought in the Bronx.

You know, if the VA in the Bronx were doing right by veterans, I would have no problem with this, but, we’ve come to know the VA better than that. I have trouble believing that there are no records of credit card purchases. If you ask me for mine, I could pull them up in about two minutes. That’s the whole point of credit cards. And we’re talking about thousands of purchases, each for tens of thousands of dollars. How do you even lose records like that?

It’s going to take decades for the VA to recover from the influence of Ric Shinseki.

Thanks to Marine_7002 for the link.

Category: Veterans' Affairs Department