VA loses 30 cars and fires the guy who told them
A number of folks have sent us links to the story of Anthony Salazar, a Veterans Affairs driver in Los Angeles who told his supervisor Robert Benkeser that there were 30 VA vehicles missing out of their stable of 88 vehicles. He also told Benkeser that there was significant abuse of Department credit cards. To reward Salazar, Benkeser fired Salazar;
The department convened an “administrative investigation board” (AIB) that resulted in “a letter of counseling” to Benkeser for mismanaging the motor pool. Benkeser then fired Salazar several months later.
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a government-wide agency that protects whistle-blowers, said earlier this month that VA blocked Salazar from showing that he was being retaliated against. The Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) imposed “an overly rigorous” standard of proof to show prohibited retaliation.
[…]
Salazar was fired Feb. 4, 2015. The ease with which Salazar was fired — he was put on a “performance improvement plan,” told he didn’t meet the goals, then let go — stands in contrast to the many employees who unambiguously committed egregious misconduct and are still on the job.
Funny how the VA can’t fire people who really need to be fired – folks who abuse the system – but they always find a way when they want to fire someone.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
Boot to the Head!
Amen! FIRE THAT BENKESER!
And here I thought a VA job was a lifetime guarantee of a paycheck for doing next to nothing and enjoying it.
It is Ex. But apparently this guy actually tried to do his job and got tossed. Sounds kinds topsy turvey to me, but given some of the VA antics we’ve seen here, apparently doing your job is considered grounds for termination at the VA.
It is, which is why the man was fired. He actually did work while at work so, to avoid being made to look bad by a pro-active employee that slipped through the hiring process, they fired him for doing work covered in his job description.
The VA hires a man that actually gives a shit and then fires him for it. You can’t make this stuff up.
I hope that Mr. Salazar retained a good lawyer, it seems that he has an excellent case for reinstatement with back pay and damages.
Agreed. We have not heard the last of this I hope.
In 1987 at Ft Polk my battery commander was relieved for losing accountability of bed linen and not initiating a report of survey in a timely manner. Thirty cars has to exceed 500,000 dollars. Sheesh
According to the linked story Benkeser makes $141K a year, so more than the base pay of a maxed out O-6.
The silver lining in all of this is that at least he got the dreaded “letter of counseling”, which is more punishment than the two chicks who scammed $400 grand in moving expenses out of the VA budget or the guy who was out “sick” for six months got.
Looks better and better every day…
http://www.defencecareers.mil.nz/reenlist-overseas/overseas-applicants
NZ needs to recruit overseas for an army dental assistant?
Australia too nice sign on’ plus they will play for your move after
Your 120 day honeymoon is over bring the family too
They are continuing the policies of the military. I’ve had a few friends “transferred” to other positions because they called out something. The status quo must be enforced, this is the gummint!
I even have a good friend who was told “find out what’s wrong with this” and then came back and told them everything wrong. He was then told, “Yeah, we’re moving you to another department.” No bullshit.
Whomever led the actions to terminate this poor schmuck was NO DOUBT of the same mindset as the 0-5’s and 0-6’s so highly recommended in their support for wide load. When it comes to upper level management in most any vocation these days, “The Higher, The Liar”.
V A motto should be, “We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Snitches”.
Why did I have to click on that link? This is the sort of shit that spikes my blood pressure, and my BP is high enough already…
How the hell can an organization lose 30 vehicles? In one city?
Well, ya see, someone sold them and gave a kickback to Benkeser. That explains the lost vehicles and the reason Benkeser canned him. Can’t have someone who is going to ask questions around, that would interfere with the fraud, waste, and abuse going on.
Or there’s about 30 Government employees using them as personal vehicles and driving them home every night and on the weekends. And Benkesern is profiting.
It’s really too bad you can just beat the shit out of some people who so richly deserve that outcome.
Honest man tells his boss there’s a problem that involves 30% of the operation’s fleet gone missing and the honest guy is the one who gets shitcanned. That simple act tells everyone with more than three working brain cells all they need to know about the Los Angles office.
Tied together with the other recent acts of theft at the VA it would appear that the VA remains a very corrupt and uncontrollable organization in many locations with respect to senior managers gaming the system for fun and profit.
This level of shitbaggery requires far more than a “nuanced” approach, it’s time to slash and burn the senior managers at all of these VA offices where these criminal acts have taken place, along with a fair amount of their senior subordinate ass lickers.
From the linked article, these excerpts tell you more than enough about how screwed up things are:
“For example, two felons work in management at the San Juan VA hospital, and a worker in the security office came to work each day with a GPS monitor because she had taken part in an armed robbery, which a spokesman said was irrelevant since it occurred off-duty. At another VA hospital, a nurse’s aide remains on the payroll as he awaits a manslaughter trial in the beating death of a patient.
Federal managers claim they can’t fire such employees because of civil service employee union rules, but critics claim government bosses’ pursuit of dismissals too often are halfhearted.”
CYA is alive and well at the VA. I’ve watched it in action. I don’t think I would last long in that kind of environment.
Unbelievable, lets give all the people who broke rules and/or laws a pat on the back and send them back in the arena to screw up even bigger things!!!