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UPDATE: LAWMAKER CALLS FOR END TO VA EXECUTIVE
BONUSES -- Wants to stop hefty bonus payments
to senior
VA officials until they reduce a severe backlog
of veterans waiting for disability benefits.
VA bonus story here...
http://vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfMAY07/nf050407-1.htm
Larry Scott commentary on why the VA
bonus program should be kept and expanded here...
http://vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfMAY07/nf050407-3.htm
Today's story here...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05
/04/AR2007050400686.html
Story below:
---------------
Lawmaker: Stop Bonuses for VA Officials
By HOPE YEN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The chairman of a House panel wants to stop hefty bonus
payments to senior Veterans Affairs officials until they reduce a severe
backlog of veterans waiting for disability benefits.
Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., said Friday he was introducing legislation to
place a hold on this year's bonuses after The Associated Press reported
that senior VA officials involved in a budget foul-up which jeopardized
veterans' health care received bonuses ranging up to $33,000.
Under the measure, 2007 bonuses could not be released until the VA pares
down its backlog to under 100,000 cases _ a feat the VA has said could
take many months, if not years. Currently, the backlog of claims ranges
from between 400,000 to more than 600,000, with delays averaging 177
days.
"It is shocking and scandalous even by the VA's own low standards that
top officials at the VA would get performance bonuses when there's a
backlog of over 600,000 cases," said Hall, chairman of the House
Veterans Affairs subcommittee on disability assistance.
A list obtained by the AP of bonuses to senior career officials in 2006
documents a generous package of more than $3.8 million in payments by a
financially strapped agency straining to help care for thousands of
injured veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The disclosure prompted outrage on Capitol Hill, where Democratic
leaders have demanded an explanation from VA Secretary Jim Nicholson and
said they would hold hearings to investigate. The VA says the bonuses
were needed to help retain hardworking employees.
Among those receiving top bonuses of $33,000 was the deputy
undersecretary for benefits, who helps manage a disability claims system
with the backlog that Nicholson now says is unacceptable.
Also receiving top payments were a deputy assistant secretary and
several regional directors who crafted the VA's flawed budget for 2005
based on misleading accounting. They received performance payments up to
$33,000 each, a figure equal to about 20 percent of their annual
salaries.
Annual bonuses to senior VA officials now average more than $16,000 _
the most lucrative in government.
---------------
Larry Scott --
