New Whistle blower Protection Office Is Under Investigation for
Retaliating Against Whistle blowers
The Veterans Affairs Department’s watchdog is investigating a new office
created by President Trump early in his administration that was designed
to protect whistleblowers from reprisal but is now facing allegations of
aiding retaliation against them.
VA’s Office of Inspector General is leading the investigation from its new
Office of Special Reviews, which the IG created to conduct “prompt reviews
of significant events” and examine allegations of senior VA employee
misconduct, an IG spokesman said. The new IG office is looking into
activities at the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection as
part of an ongoing review of the implementation of the 2017 law that
created OAWP.
Trump created OAWP by executive order in 2017 and later codified it when
he signed the 2017 VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act into
law. The office was mostly celebrated, with advocates hopeful that the
focus on the rights and protections for whistleblowers would reverse a
culture infamous for intimidation and reprisal. That optimism has largely
soured, however, leading to hotline tips to the inspector general and
bipartisan scrutiny from Congress.
“There has been considerable interest by some members of Congress and
other stakeholders in this effort,” said Mike Nacincik, the IG spokesman,
who said he could not comment further on ongoing work.
President Trump has frequently touted the law as one of his signature
legislative achievements, focusing primarily on the reforms it made to
expedite the disciplinary process for VA employees. But Trump also spoke
of the promises on which skeptics now say the law has failed to deliver:
“This bill protects whistleblowers who do the right thing,” Trump said.
“We want to reward, cherish, and promote the many dedicated employees at
the VA.”
Government Executive spoke to several VA employees who expressed
frustration or anger toward OAWP, three of whom have already been
interviewed by IG investigators. They described feeling betrayed or
neglected by an office they believed was going to help them but ended up
doing the opposite. They said they have shared information with the
investigators, including documentation of alleged reprisal.
Curt Cashour, a VA spokesman, said the department “welcomes the inspector
general’s oversight,” but defended it against most allegations. He
acknowledged that the office experienced some growing pains, but said it
has “evolved over time, refining and improving its policies and practices
along the way.”
What Whistleblowers Are Telling Investigators
“It’s a crooked system where literally the fox is guarding the hen house,”
said Jay DeNofrio.
DeNofrio, an administrative officer at a VA facility in Altoona, Pa., had
prior experience as a whistleblower before OAWP was created—years ago, he
disclosed information about a doctor he said was losing mental capacity
and putting veterans at risk—so he thought he understood the investigative
process that takes place after employees make disclosures to
investigators. OAWP, however, was the first body he’d ever worked with
that coordinated with VA headquarters to find blemishes on his own record
after he reported wrongdoing, he said. Investigators questioned his
coworkers, telling them DeNofrio does not “walk on water” just because he
is a protected whistleblower and encouraged them to immediately report
“any instances of poor behavior,” according to transcripts of those
conversations obtained through records requests and provided to Government
Executive.
DeNofrio said IG investigators took the allegations against OAWP seriously
and called their review “high profile” and “high priority.”
Dan Martin, a chief engineer at VA’s Northern Indiana Health Care System,
said OAWP failed to protect him when his case came before it. Martin said
in 2016 he discovered contracting violations related to a non-functioning
water filtration system, but when he reported the problems to superiors he
was stripped of his responsibilities and sent to work in an office without
heat or air conditioning. The VA inspector general launched an
investigation into the contracting practices, and asked Martin to
surreptitiously record conversations with procurement officers, Martin
said.
It was not until OAWP got involved in the case that Martin’s supervisors
became aware of that cooperation. When OAWP allegedly shared that
information with leadership at his facility, Martin said his supervisors
“had no choice but to shut me down” so he could no longer send recordings
about the supervisors’ “very inappropriate relationships with contractors”
to investigators in the OIG.
“OAWP set me up,” said Martin, who initially felt far more optimistic
about OAWP’s capacity to help his cause. “They incentivized [my facility]
to go after me.”
Martin is also fighting his case through the Merit Systems Protection
Board. During that process, VA’s Office of General Counsel came to Martin
and his attorneys asking for certain information about the case. The
attorneys representing Martin told the lawyers in the Office of General
Counsel they would only hand the information over during discovery.
Shortly after rejecting the request, Martin said, OAWP followed up to ask
for the same information.
“Some of them are so crooked they swallow nails and spit up corkscrews,”
Martin said.
‘They Turned on Whistleblowers’
The alleged collaboration between the Office of General Counsel and OAWP
has troubled observers. Tom Devine, legal director at the Government
Accountability Project, a whistleblower advocacy group, said his initial
excitement about OAWP has been dampened by “structural developments,”
including what he called veto power the department's general counsel has
over the whistleblower protection office.
This would appear to be in violation of the 2017 law that permanently
authorized OAWP, which prohibits the office from existing “as an element
of the Office of General Counsel” and its leadership from reporting to
OGC. Cashour said it was false to suggest that the Office of General
Counsel exercises veto power over whistleblower claims, but acknowledged
OAWP and OGC do coordinate.
“OAWP has a collaborative working relationship with OGC, but OAWP retains
final decision making authority on all OAWP matters,” Cashour said.
Rebecca Jones, policy counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, said
the office can likely not completely fix its issues while it remains an
“internal clearinghouse” for whistleblowers rather than a truly
independent office. Jones praised the IG for investigating the alleged
retaliation.
“I wish it hadn’t come to this,” she said.
Devine praised some of OAWP’s early accomplishments, such as delaying VA’s
disciplinary decisions that involved alleged reprisal and the hiring of
high-profile whistleblower Brandon Coleman as a liaison between
whistleblowers and the office. Coleman even established a mentoring
program to help assist victims of retaliation, but it has since been shut
down.
“They didn’t have the teeth to enforce their good deeds,” said Devine, who
has significantly curbed his cooperation with OAWP. “They turned on
whistleblowers.”
‘You Don’t Want to Come Forward’
A third VA employee, who requested anonymity to protect his ongoing cases,
recently informed IG investigators about what he alleged is OAWP’s
betrayal of trust and subsequent inactivity. The employee made an initial
whistleblower disclosure in early 2017 that was bounced around to several
offices within VA. He subsequently was removed from his position as a
technician and is now relegated to “brain-dead work,” he said.
He contacted OAWP about the alleged reprisal later that year. During his
interactions with the whistleblower office, he turned over sensitive
information about his hospital that a colleague had provided—the OAWP
investigator was the only individual with whom he shared the information.
Days later, the employee said, the colleague was “chewed out” by leaders
at the facility for sharing the information. To the employee, it felt like
OAWP had betrayed him, he told Government Executive.
The employee said he then experienced 21 months of “radio silence.” He
recently spoke with OIG about his negative experiences with OAWP. A few
days later, the employee said he unexpectedly heard from the OAWP
investigators. He said he is now “very, very cautious” in his interactions
with OAWP.
“It scares you,” he said. “You don’t want to come forward. People are
afraid.”
Tonya Van, formerly a doctor a VA facility in San Antonio, also became a
whistleblower after disclosing to a supervisor that a doctor at her
facility was giving incorrect diagnoses. She filed a complaint with OAWP
after she alleged her supervisor made her work life so miserable she was
forced to resign. But she quickly became disenchanted with the office due
to lack of communication, she said. She tried to follow up with OAWP but
never heard back. The office eventually closed out her case, though it
later contacted her about opening a second investigation. She said she has
“no idea” what the results of either investigation were.
Van alleged that her supervisors’ reprisal against her took the form of
accusations of using foul language in the workplace. Martin, the Northern
Indiana employee, said he faced an investigation for similar accusations.
Changes and Cautious Optimism
Cashour, the VA spokesman, said OAWP does not provide “detailed
information related to the specific outcome of an investigation to
employees” due to privacy concerns. He added that the office has revised
its policies to disclose more information to claimants, including when an
investigation has been closed and if claims of retaliation were
substantiated.
Multiple VA employees criticized this practice, calling it
counterintuitive that VA would claim privacy concerns over investigations
that the employees themselves requested.
Cashour said OAWP has changed other practices after a draft of a June 2018
Government Accountability Office report faulted the office for its
investigatory practices, including allowing officials accused of
retaliation to be directly involved in the inquiries in which they are
named. VA told GAO it would not end its practice of “referring cases of
misconduct back to facilities and program offices where the misconduct
occurred.” However, Cashour said OAWP now informs employees upfront when
their matters will be referred elsewhere for review. To protect
whistleblowers, he said, OAWP now allows employees “to either opt-out of
the disclosure or withhold the release of their name.”
In August 2018, however, when Van had an in-person interview with OAWP
investigators, she and her attorney were still alleging retaliation by
OAWP. While asking about Van’s allegations, an OAWP investigator told Van
she could be penalized for violating a prior settlement with VA by asking
a former colleague to write a recommendation. Her attorney said Deirdre
Weiss, the OAWP employee, was ignoring the intent of that prior agreement.
“The bottom line is that, as accountability investigators, where we see
possible wrongdoing we cannot look the other way just because somebody is
a complainant, okay,” said Weiss, according to a transcript of the
proceedings.
Last year, before his office formally launched an official investigation
into the practices of OAWP, VA Inspector General Michael Missal became
part of a public spat with then acting Secretary Peter O’Rourke over
documents housed within the office. The IG requested access to information
on the cases filed with OAWP, but O’Rourke refused to comply. They aired
their grievances through a series of public letters, which included
O’Rourke harshly reminding Missal that the IG served as the secretary’s
subordinate. Congress ultimately intervened by emphasizing in a spending
bill that the IG had the right to any and all documents it requested.
O’Rourke had previously served as the first head of OAWP, a period in
which many of the complaints against the office originated. Current VA
Secretary Robert Wilkie reportedly asked O’Rourke to resign last year
after determining he was doing little work as a senior advisor.
OAWP is still a small office, employing just 96 workers—28 of whom are
investigators—for a workforce of 380,000. Its employees receive
standardized training in investigative techniques, both internally and
from outside experts such as those at the Homeland Security Department and
the Office of Special Counsel.
The office is now headed by Tammy Bonzanto, who previously served as an
investigator on the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Her tenure has
received mixed reviews. DeNofrio, for example, is still concerned by what
he calls her lack of transparency. Other observers are cautiously
optimistic that her leadership could get the office back to its original
mission.
“We’re confident they have good-faith leadership now,” said GAP’s Devine.
“The question is how much professional freedom she’ll have.”
-------------------------------------
Nearly 100,000 Pentagon whistleblower complaints have been silenced – Lee
Camp
I don’t know if I’d have the nerve to be a whistleblower. I’d like to
think I would. We all like to think we would, just like we all like to
think we could catch the game-winning touchdown or fold a fitted sheet
without cursing
But to blow the whistle on a huge organization with a lot of power, likely
drawing that power to come crashing down on your head – that takes some
serious spine-age. Now, imagine the organization you’re calling out is
arguably the largest, most powerful, most secretive and most violent
organization on planet Earth. I’m speaking, of course, of the US
Department of Defense.
Read more
Pentagon books so wrong on every level it’s impossible to detect fraud –
Matt Taibbi Pentagon books so wrong on every level it’s impossible to
detect fraud – Matt Taibbi
Yet thousands, even tens of thousands, of people have taken that step over
the past five years. (More on this in a moment.)
All the while our organized human murder machine continues its work around
the world. Every day. Every hour. Never a moment of rest. Never pausing to
clip their toenails or scratch their ass. Bombs dropped. Buildings blown
up. People killed or imprisoned. No end in sight.
By the way, that’s the term I like to use instead of “military” –
Organized Human Murder Machine.
It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? “Mili-tary” sounds too boring, too
banal. Sounds like a super-lame couple you met at a party. “Yeah, Millie
and Terry over there are accountants. If I have to hear one more joke
about capital gains taxes, I’m gonna kill myself.”
But that’s not what the military is. The military is a gigantic organized
human murder machine, and even if you “support” every action our military
has ever taken, you can still acknowledge it’s an organized human murder
machine. (You would just bizarrely argue that all the murder has been just
and sound and pure.)
Eleven months ago I covered $21 trillion of unaccounted-for adjustments at
the Pentagon over the past 20 years. Don’t try to think about the number
$21 trillion because you’ll pass out and hit your head on the desk. If
your salary is $40,000 a year, in order to earn $21 trillion, it would
take you 525 million years. (At which point you can’t even enjoy the new
jet ski you just bought with all your money because you’re almost
certainly a brain in a jar … though a nice embroidered jar that only the
rich brains can afford.)
Also on rt.com The Pentagon failed its audit amid a $21 trillion scandal
(yes, trillion) - Lee Camp
Over the past year there has been a little more coverage of the utterly
preposterous amount of money unaccounted for at our human murder machine.
The Nation magazine, Forbes and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez all
covered it. Then the white blood cells of the military-industrial complex
kicked into action in order to destroy the “infection.” The New York Times
and Vox both claimed the $21 trillion is merely the result of large-scale
misdocumentation and therefore doesn’t matter at all. Of course, the idea
that tens of TRILLIONS of dollars of unaccountable adjustments don’t
matter and couldn’t mask any fraud, abuse or corruption is an assertion
that makes Charlie Sheen’s statement that he runs on tiger blood seem
downright levelheaded.
Probably the best article to date on the $21 trillion was written a few
weeks ago by Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone.
Point is, even though most of the mainstream media won’t get near this
subject (or worse yet—actively attack those who do), the word is getting
out: There is a giant sucking sound in the center of the Pentagon, and
whatever’s down there feeds on trillions of secretive dollars, then sh*ts
out incalculable death and destruction. (It’s the Death Star if officials
at the Death Star spent $10,000 on a toilet seat.)
A month ago the Government Accountability Office came out with a report
showing the total number of whistleblower complaints over the past five
years at the Department of Defense. It’s nearly 100,000. Here’s the only
part of the report that references that number:
“The Department of Defense Inspector General identified 8 substantiated
violations of whistleblower confidentiality between fiscal years 2013 and
2018, representing approximately .01 percent of the 95,613 contacts
handled by the Inspector General during that time…”
Read more
We are being lied into war again – Lee Camp We are being lied into war
again – Lee Camp
95,613 whistleblower complaints over five years.
Sadly, the Government Accountability Office was trying to brag in that
sentence. They were proudly stating, “We only breached the confidentiality
of .01 percent of our 95,000 whistleblower complaints. Aren’t we heroes?!”
It’s kind of like saying, “Of the 10,000 dolphins I’ve killed, not a
single one has accidentally been a human.” The sane response is, “Well,
I’m glad to hear that, but did you say you killed 10,000 dolphins?”
To try to get the 95,000 number to make a little more sense, that averages
out to a whistleblower every six minutes of every weekday for five
straight years. (That waiting room must be truly nuts. I bet all the good
magazines were claimed years ago.)
But maybe I’m looking at this all wrong. Perhaps the number 95,613
shouldn’t be all that shocking, and I need to roll my tongue back up and
store it back within my mouth. When you have $21 trillion of
unaccounted-for adjustments, it means a seizure-inducing amount of money,
parts, pieces, bombs, missiles, manpower and devices are flying around
with no accountability – likely creating loads of fraud, which would
probably create loads of whistleblowers. Hence, maybe we all should have
expected this number of whistleblowers rather than being shocked.
For example, there’s the time in 2003 when the US flew $12 billion in cash
to Iraq and promptly lost track of it. As the Guardian makes clear in this
article, this was not an instance of hackers on a computer system stealing
a bunch of ones and zeroes. This was giant pallets of cash money vanishing
without a trace. In fact, it was 281 million $100 bills, weighing in at
363 tons. That’s not really the type of thing you can just smuggle away in
your sweatshirt while humming “She’ll be comin’ ‘round the mountain.”
READ MORE: Trump is ‘for socialism’ … but only when it comes to funding US
military industry – Tulsi Gabbard
Or here’s another example journalist David DeGraw highlights from the
Government Accountability Report:
“… according to a Department of Defense official, during an initial audit,
the Army found 39 Blackhawk helicopters that had not been recorded in the
property system. [$819 million in value] Similarly, the Air Force
identified 478 buildings and structures at 12 installations that were not
in the real property systems.”
The Army lost and then found 39 helicopters.
The Air Force lost and then found 478 buildings.
How does one lose a goddamn building? Unless you just had a bad breakup
with David Copperfield, there’s no explanation for losing a building.
(Side note: It must suck divorcing David Copperfield. “Really, honey? You
think you’re gonna take the house?? PAFOOMPF! What house?!”)
Ya see, this madness stems from the fact that the Pentagon has a standard
operating procedure of simply making up numbers to fill their books –
which, for normal human beings, is termed “fraud.” But in the case of the
Pentagon, it’s termed, “We get to make sh*t up because … ummm… national
security.”
Also on rt.com Cold War is good for business: US contractors rejoice at
the new Red Scare
Here’s more from a 2013 Reuters article:
“Linda Woodford spent the last 15 years of her career inserting phony
numbers in the Department of Defense’s accounts … but many mystery numbers
remained. For those, Woodford and her colleagues were told by superiors to
take “unsubstantiated change actions” – in other words, enter false
numbers, commonly called “plugs,” to make the Navy’s totals match the
Treasury’s.”
Have no fear, patriotic Americans, this is not “lying to the American
people, stealing their money, and using it for war,” this is just
“unsubstantiated change actions.” Try that on your next tax return. Put in
$10,000 marked “Unsubstantiated change actions.” I’m sure they’ll love
that.
So let’s sum this up, shall we? The Pentagon sucks up 55% of all the
discretionary tax money we pay to our government (thanks to our bought-off
Congress who receive more Christmas cards from weapons contractors than
they do from relatives). Those who work at the Pentagon have no idea where
or how the money is spent. They make up many of the numbers resulting in
tens of trillions of dollars of unaccounted-for adjustments. They lose
helicopters, buildings and, in a few instances, even nuclear warheads.
There is an unimaginable amount of fraud and corruption at every level and
literally thousands of whistleblowers have tried to come forward every
single year – one every six minutes. When they do take that incredibly
brave action, over 90% of the claims are dismissed without even being
investigated.
You would think, in this topsy-turvy world, if there were one organization
we could trust with a trillion dollars a year of our taxpayer money, it
would be the Department of Unauthorized Highly Secretive Mass Human
Murder.
-------------------------
IN MORE CRIMES BY PUBLIC OFFICIALS.....
Thursday, June 27, 2019
HUD Assistant Inspector General Indicted for Concealing Procurement Fraud Scheme
A seven-count indictment was returned yesterday charging a former Assistant Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, with engaging in a scheme to conceal material facts, making false statements and falsification of records.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting Assistant Director in Charge John P. Selleck of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and Michael K. Atkinson, Inspector General of the Intelligence Community made the announcement.
According to the indictment, between early 2012 and mid-2016, Eghbal “Eddie” Saffarinia engaged in a scheme to conceal material facts, including the nature and extent of Saffarinia’s financial relationship with a personal friend who was the owner and chief executive officer of an information technology company in Virginia. During a period in which Saffarinia received payments and loans from his friend totaling $80,000, Saffarinia disclosed confidential internal government information to his friend and undertook efforts to steer government contracts and provide competitive advantages and preferential treatment to his friend’s company. Saffarinia also failed to disclose this financial relationship and another large promissory note on his public financial disclosure forms.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Office of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community. Trial Attorneys Edward P. Sullivan and Rosaleen T. O’Gara of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
https://www.army.mil/article/124325/whistleblower_reprisal_what_it_is_isnt
http://www.dodhotline.dodig.mil/Programs/Whistleblower/pdfs/IOGuide/GuideToInvestigatingMilitaryWhistleblowerReprisalAndRestrictionComplaints.pdf
https://www.gsaig.gov/sites/default/files/foia/Investigation%20of%20GSA%20Whistleblower%20Reprisal%20Complaint%20June%202017.pdf
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-air-national-guard-whistleblower-retaliation-20190423-story.html
http://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2019/apr/16/european-parliament-backs-rules-to-protect-whistleblowers-1965117.html
https://www.rollcall.com/news/pentagon-whistleblowers-often-face-retaliation-that-goes-unpunished
https://www.law360.com/articles/1133035/9th-circ-affirms-ex-bio-rad-gc-s-8m-whistleblower-win
https://retractionwatch.com/2018/07/30/how-institutions-gaslight-whistleblowers-and-what-can-be-done/
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/05/corporate-whistleblowers-desperate-for-new-protections
https://www.devex.com/news/the-high-price-of-being-a-un-whistleblower-92752
http://www.mondaq.com/canada/x/670072/Whistleblowing/OSC+Whistleblower+Regime+Updates+Civil+Cause+Of+Action+For+Whistleblower+Reprisals
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/middlechurch-home-whistleblower-speaks-1.4713482
https://www.smh.com.au/business/chilling-tale-of-origin-energy-whistleblower-20170124-gtxuhz.html
https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/you-ruined-my-career-pay-me-10m-traumatised-agent-suing-the-afp-for-huge-sum/news-story/8c6e1c9a70745dc4418973d028db1323
https://www.federaltimes.com/federal-oversight/2017/10/23/fbi-managers-labeled-whistleblower-an-insider-threat-in-retaliation/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/09/22/va-culture-of-reprisals-against-whistleblowers-remains-strong-after-scandal/
https://www.stripes.com/news/feds-probing-reports-of-va-whistleblower-reprisals-1.287227
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3006462/european-parliament-overwhelmingly-backs-rules-protect-whistle
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/politics/federal/the-whistle-shaped-hole-in-our-laws-20190327-p5185l.html
http://theconversation.com/troublemakers-and-traitors-its-no-fun-being-a-whistleblower-50755
https://leadership.ng/2019/01/19/fifa-whistleblower-killed-in-ghana/
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/2018-the-year-of-the-whistleblower