VA Committee Leaders Call for VA Executive Accountability After Budget Mismanagement

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) - incoming chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs - and Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) - chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs - called for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough to prioritize accountability in VA's annual executive appraisal cycle after recent mismanagement of VA's budget and authority to award incentive payments.

In July, VA announced a nearly $15 billion shortfall in their health and benefits accounts. In response, Congress passed an emergency supplemental to make certain veterans and their survivors received their benefits on time in October. In November, VA stated they did not need the supplemental funding that Congress had provided, and VA maintained a surplus of funds. Additionally, VA's Office of Inspector General announced earlier this summer that senior executives at VA Central Office improperly awarded themselves $10.8 million in PACT Act Critical Skills Incentive payments intended for high demand positions in the field.

"VA has a sacred duty to care for veterans and a responsibility to faithfully use the resources entrusted to the Department by Congress," wrote Sen. Moran and Rep. Bost. "Adequate accountability is the only way we can prevent history from repeating itself and ensure the timely delivery of health care and benefits for the millions of veterans, their dependents and survivors who put their trust in VA."

The full letter can be found here and below:

Dear Secretary McDonough,

In July, after Senate Appropriators reached a deal on funding allocations, VA announced a $12 billion shortfall in the Department's health care accounts and a $3 billion shortfall in the Department's benefits accounts. Either VA could not account for its budgetary needs or worse yet, engaged in budgetary gamesmanship to fund other agencies on the backs of our veterans.

When VA's senior executive leaders put the health care and benefits of our veterans at risk, veterans' trust in the institution erodes. Mismanagement at this level is unacceptable.

On November 1, VA backtracked and announced that it did not, in fact, need any of the emergency supplemental funding that Congress provided in September. Congress had provided this additional funding after your Department threatened that veterans, survivors and other beneficiaries would not receive their expected payments otherwise. After warning veterans and their families worldwide that the Department was on the verge of running out of funds, the Department actually had a surplus.

As we understand from correspondence with your staff, VA's annual appraisal process for senior executives is ongoing. VA Directive 5027 provides VA policies related to the Senior Executive Service. Paragraph 2.j. states that the performance appraisal system shall identify individual accountability for accomplishing VA goals and provide a basis for performance awards, pay adjustments, executive development, reassignments, reduction-in-force, and removals.

In the fiscal year 2024 performance appraisal of each individual senior executive and equivalent, please document what role, if any, each leader had in the budget mismanagement described above, including the improperly projected shortfall in the Veterans Benefits Administration accounts and the grossly overestimated shortfall in the Veterans Health Administration accounts. All performance-related compensation decisions should adequately reflect the associated shortcomings of each individual. Please be prepared to provide such information to the Committee upon request.

VA has a sacred duty to care for veterans and a responsibility to faithfully use the resources entrusted to the Department by Congress. Adequate accountability is the only way we can prevent history from repeating itself and ensure the timely delivery of health care and benefits for the millions of veterans, their dependents and survivors who put their trust in VA.

https://www.veterans.senate.gov/2024/12/va-committee-leaders-call-for-va-executive-accountability-after-budget-mismanagement