VA suspends top official in relocation scam
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Department of Veterans Affairs is suspending acting VBA chief Danny Pummill for allowing two lower-ranking officials to manipulate the agency’s hiring system for their own gain.
WASHINGTON >> The Department of Veterans Affairs is suspending the head of the Veterans Benefits Administration for allowing two lower-ranking officials to manipulate the agency’s hiring system for their own gain.
Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson says acting VBA chief Danny Pummill will be suspended without pay for 15 days for his role in a relocation scam that has roiled the agency for months.
Pummill failed to exercise proper oversight as Kimberly Graves and Diana Rubens forced lower-ranking managers to accept job transfers and then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their senior-level pay while reducing their responsibilities, Gibson said Tuesday.
Pummill is one of VA’s five highest-ranking officials and leads VBA’s employees across 56 regional offices nationwide that provide compensation and pension benefits, life insurance, home loans and other services to millions of veterans.
Under VA rules, Pummill can appeal his suspension to an independent arbiter.
Pummill was the VBA’s deputy chief when Rubens and Graves implemented the job relocations, which put both of them closer to their families. Pummill replaced former VBA chief Allison Hickey, who retired as allegations against Rubens and Graves were made public.
Rubens earns $181,497 as director of the VBA’s Philadelphia regional office, while Graves receives $173,949 as head of the St. Paul, Minnesota, benefits office.
Graves and Rubens were reprimanded Tuesday and had their pay cut by 10 percent. The two women were reinstated to their positions last month after administrative judges overturned their demotions.
The judges based their rulings, in part, on the fact that more senior officials such as Pummill had not been disciplined in the case. In a related action, the VA said it has reprimanded Beth McCoy, director of field operations for the VBA. Gibson said McCoy did not exercise proper judgment in taking over for Rubens as heads of field operations.
Gibson said the disciplinary actions were in the best interests of veterans and taxpayers. “Ultimately, that is what these decisions are about: getting back to the work of serving America’s veterans,” he said.
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called the actions “a weak slap on the wrist.”
Accountability at the VA “is almost non-existent,” Miller said. “One thing is clear: this dysfunctional status quo will never change until we eliminate arcane civil service rules that put the job security of VA bureaucrats ahead of the veterans they are charged with serving.”
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4 responses to “VA suspends top official in relocation scam”
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Less work and more pay? what a deal.
only 15 days? really?……how about showing him the door?
“Gibson said the disciplinary actions were in the best interests of veterans and taxpayers. “Ultimately, that is what these decisions are about: getting back to the work of serving America’s veterans,” he said.” Why are these people not being fired for their blatant, orchestrated, and obvious attempts to rip off the VA, the veteran’s it is supposed to serve and the American people who are being taxed to pay for all of these VA salaries? Is this how they “take care” of the problems with in the Veterans Administration? This continues to smell more like “corporate corruption” that is still with in the corridors of the VA; where is the oversight of the VA, as it seems the “fox” is still raiding the “VA chicken coop” and stealing all the eggs, right from under them!
All of the VA employees involved in this case should have been terminated. This is completely outrageous, the florida congressman is right when he says these civil service employees seem to be more important to the system than the veterans they are supposed to be serving.
You’d have to shoot someone on Wall Street to get fired from the VA. No wonder our vets are in such bad shape. When Obama gets back to the White House he had better do his job.