VA Receives Golden Fleece Again! Rash of Drug Thefts at VA Health Facilites
The Golden Fleece Award |
Since reinstituting the Golden Fleece Award in 2015, Hill has given the VA four previous Golden Fleece awards - more than any other federal agency. “It is clear that there has been a leadership void at VA for a long time,” said Hill. “Congress has been trying to address this problem for years, but the previous administration continued to protect poorly performing employees who were working against the best interests of veterans and taxpayers. While we experienced these problems in Little Rock through the patient data manipulation and the solar panel debacle, this represented a national trend, as many other areas of the country also underwent some form of mismanagement at their local VA facilities.”
Today, in an effort to address the accountability issue at VA, the House passed S. 1094, the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017. S. 1094 would allow the VA Secretary to remove or reprimand senior executive service employees as well as most of the non-senior executive service employees for misconduct or performance warranting that action.
“Our veterans deserve a VA that doesn’t tolerate data manipulation for personal gain and management that doesn’t waste the valuable tax dollars that were appropriated for helping veterans. Today’s vote, while not a silver bullet, is an important step in changing the culture at VA and ensuring that those serving our veterans are held accountable for their actions and operate in a way that always puts the veterans first,” said Hill.
About the Golden Fleece Award
Every year, Congress appropriates trillions of dollars to fund the federal government, and every year the federal government wastes portions of these funds in unconscionable ways. As a Member of Congress, and as a taxpayer, this frustrates me to no end. In an attempt to increase accountability for every single government program, Congressman Hill decided to bring back the Golden Fleece Award.
Originally introduced by Democratic U.S. Senator from Wisconsin William Proxmire in March 1975, the Golden Fleece Award was a monthly bulletin on the most frivolous and wasteful uses of hardworking taxpayers’ dollars. The Golden Fleece Award became a staple in the U.S. Senate during this time, and Senator Robert Byrd once stated that the awards were “as much a part of the Senate as quorum calls and filibusters.”
In reviving this idea, the Golden Fleece Award will again have the opportunity to serve as an important reminder to taxpayers about the need for necessary, commonsense reforms to our federal spending.
Tags: Rep. French Hill, R-AR, awards, Golden Fleece Award, Veterans Administration, VA, drug thefts, VA health facilities To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
1 Comments:
EVER HEAR OF VETTING POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES? SOME OF THE ONES, I SEE IAM VERY DOUBTFUL...!
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