Whistleblowers from Veterans Affairs facilities across the country call the VA’s Office of Inspector General a “joke” and say the agency continues to retaliate against them despite repeated pledges to stop punishing those who speak up.
The whistleblowers told a Senate committee Tuesday that the VA has failed to hold employees accountable more than a year after a scandal broke over chronic delays for veterans seeking medical care and falsified records covering up the delays.
Republicans and Democrats on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee called on President Barack Obama to appoint the first permanent inspector general at the VA in two years.
Committee Chairman Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said the VA “has a cultural problem” of retaliating against whistleblowers and it must be fixed.
The Associated Press contributed to this article