Four senior level Veterans Affairs executives are being fired as the department cracks down on those complicit in the scandal over long wait times for veterans seeking medical care and the accompanying cover-ups through falsified records, reported the Associated Press on Monday.
The VA said that it is firing a top purchasing official at the Veterans Health Administration, directors of VA hospitals in both Pittsburgh and Dublin, Georgia and a regional hospital director in Alabama.
"VA will actively and aggressively pursue disciplinary action against those who violate our values," Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said Monday. "There should be no doubt that when we discover evidence of wrongdoing, we will hold employees accountable."
One of the employees being let go, Deputy Chief Procurement Officer Susan Taylor, recently made headlines for her involvement in contractor procurement fraud, abuse and whistleblower retaliation.
Taylor was accused by the VA inspector general of unfairly steering contracts to the private reverse auction company, FedBid, as well as misusing "her position and VA resources" for FedBid's gain, and interfering with the inspector general's investigation. Taylor, along with FedBid executives, were also charged with working to discredit a senior VA official who had declared a moratorium on reverse auctions, according to the inspector general's report.
Terry Gerigk Wolf, director out of the Pittsburgh VA Healthcare System, is being fired for unspecified "conduct unbecoming a senior executive," but it likely has something to do with conduct regarding the Legionnaire's disease outbreak in 2011 and 2012, where at least six Pittsburgh VA patients died, according to the Associated Press.
Regional hospital director of the Central Alabama system, James Talton, is being fired after the VA's Office of Accountability Review alleged he neglected his duty when "hundreds of X-rays went unread, patients experienced long delays in getting appointments, patient records were manipulated, and one employee took a patient to buy illegal drugs," the AP reported.
John Goldman, director of the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin, Georgia, had already announced his retirement last month, but the VA made public that he was also being fired. Employees at the Georgia hospital admitted to falsifying records to hide long veteran wait times.
The dismissals came shortly after Congress passed a law this summer requiring the VA to reduce the process time for veterans' disability claims.
The law also made it easier for the agency to fire senior officials suspected of wrongdoing, shortening their appeals process to 28 days.
