Senior VA Executives Abused Positions for Financial Gain

Senior VA Executives Abused Positions for Financial Gain

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Diana Rubens Photo credit: Joe Gromelski/Stars and Stripes[/caption]Ok everyone. You are probably going to have to take a seat and make sure you are breathing calmly and slowly before you read this. With all the problems veterans have had with the VA with waiting lists and veterans dying while waiting to get in to the VA, this news today is pretty enraging.Two executives with the VA have been accused in criminal complaints of abusing their positions for financial gain to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's right. While veterans have sat on waiting lists dying waiting for care, two VA executives were working harder to make sure they got their pockets lined with cash. Here is the story from Stars and Stripes:WASHINGTON — A senior Department of Veterans Affairs manager who was supposed to clean up a beleaguered regional office abused her position for financial gain, part of a wider scheme to give stealth raises to executives, according to a VA Office of Inspector General report released Monday.

The inspector general had been investigating Philadelphia VA Regional Office Director Diana Rubens since March, after it became known that she received nearly $300,000 in compensation to move about 140 miles from Washington to Philadelphia. While the inspector general’s office concluded that her moving expenses were allowable, it found she and one other executive had manipulated the VA hiring system to create vacancies they sought for financial gain in an era of government pay freezes.The inspector general has made a criminal referral to the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office for actions by Rubens and Kimberly Graves, who is accused of a similar scheme to become director of the St. Paul Veterans Affairs Regional Office. No charges have been filed.Read the rest of the sickening story at the Stars and Stripes.[mwi-cat-listing cat="94" ppp="4" cols="4" desc="false" type="view" btn_color="black" ]