VA OIG investigation of Director of Denver VARO

Someone dropped this document in our inbox this morning. It’s a report by the Veterans’ Affairs Department Office of the Inspector General of the time the current Director of the Denver VA Regional Office, Melanie Renaye Murphy, didn’t bother to show up for her work.

VA OIG investigation

I’ll summarize some of the findings; During her time in the position, she habitually showed up late for work 508 days out of 1000 days between 2011 and 2014 (the year she was appointed to her current position). Of those days that she came to work, she showed up for work at least 30 minutes late 90 times. She also claims that she teleworked for 180 days but could not prove exactly what she was doing while not at the office.

The VAOIG concluded;

Ms. Murphy misused her official time by frequently arriving late to her duty station between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2014. Although she was permitted to flex her day by up to 15 minutes, we were unable to determine if she worked later to compensate for her late arrivals, whether 15 or more minutes. Further, this time was not entered into her ETA. As a senior leader, Ms. Murphy is held to a higher standard and should set the tone for her subordinates to follow, and arriving late to work over 70 percent of her workdays diminishes her position and authority as a senior leader.

We also found no or insufficient records to support her arrival at the facility or that she worked the entire day for 14 identified workdays. Subsequent to our interview with her, Ms. Murphy amended her ETA to retroactively take leave for 2 full days and 7 partial days not related to these 14 days. We gave Ms. Murphy ample opportunity to provide evidence that she worked these unaccounted for days, and the most she provided us was one email or email chain for 5 of the days in question. Although she may have worked extended hours to compensate for these days, she failed to properly record her time through the use of VA Form 5631 or in the ETA as required by VA policy.

Additionally, we found that Ms. Murphy improperly teleworked for about 6 months. She not only failed to take the required training, she split her workday to care for a family member and did not take the appropriate paid and/or unpaid leave to cover her personal travel time and the time she spent caring for the family member. Ms. Murphy, as the most senior leader within that facility, has a duty and responsibility to set the highest possible example for her workforce by adhering to Federal laws and regulations, as well as VA policy. Unfortunately, she failed to establish a culture of accountability for time and attendance, and time and attendance recordkeeping was too lax to provide an accurate accounting of the time she worked.

Moreover, we found that Ms. Murphy and her staff improperly used a local credit hour policy, which was contrary to VA Policy. Employees maintained an off-the-books credit hour spreadsheet, did not notify supervisors in advance when credit hours were accrued, and did not record these hours as required in ETA. In addition, the former VARO Director, Ms. Murphy, and the Assistant Director failed to establish a culture of time and attendance accountability, which is a primary responsibility of senior management.

So, that was just one employee in the Denver office, the director, but the OIG discovered that the problem was office-wide, probably because the director provided such a stellar example for her subordinates. The report was circulated to leadership in the VA two months ago, and all indications are that Ms. Murphy still occupies her position as director of the Denver VARO.

Category: Veterans' Affairs Department