WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa asked the Veterans Affairs secretary for details of the number of employees on administrative leave over the veterans treatment scandal and policies on the length of paid administrative leave.
“The government is notoriously slow in resolving investigative matters,” Grassley said. “That means a number of Veterans Affairs employees could end up on paid leave for an extended period of time. It would add insult to injury for any wronged veterans to give employees who might have cooked the books at the VA extended paid vacations while the government sorts out the mess. Leave policies should make sense and not be abused during prolonged internal investigations.”
The Government Accountability Office already is looking at the government’s use of administrative leave, including paid leave, at Grassley’s request. Grassley asked for the inquiry after prior examples of extended paid leave. The inspector general of the National Archives and Records Administration has been on paid administrative leave since Sept. 14, 2012, pending an investigation into allegations of professional misconduct. Grassley once revealed an IRS employee who remained on the IRS payroll for three years without performing any work after a conviction for several felonies. The IRS appeared to fire the employee only after notification from Grassley.
In the current Veterans Affairs scandal, several employees have been placed on leave following accusations of hiding the length of patient waiting lists. One employee says she was put on unpaid leave in retaliation for refusing to go along with instructions to falsify waiting lists. The number of employees on leave might increase if the scandal grows.
The text of Grassley’s letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is available here.
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