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Collins sends second round of questions to VA on wasteful conference spending
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) requested more information from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Wednesday on the conferences held in Orlando in 2011, which the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) said included more than $700,000 in excessive or wasteful spending.
Collins’ second letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki came after the VA OIG released a report finding that VA oversight was weak and ineffective and failed to keep spending in check for the Orlando conferences. The report also showed that several VA employees accepted improper gifts, such as limousine and helicopter rides, and tickets to a Rockettes show.
“These findings are inexcusable, given the heroic mission the VA has to serve our nation’s veterans, but they are especially disappointing because they should have been preventable,” Collins wrote in a letter that was released Wednesday. “As we’ve seen with the GSA conferences scandal, abuses that lead to one scandal may just be the tip of the iceberg and a broader review may expose a cultural problem at the agency.”
This is the second letter Collins’ has written to the VA regarding the wasteful conferences. She said she received a response to her first letter, but that not all her questions about accountability were answered and now she has more since the OIG has ruled that the VA has weak oversight.
“As a result of poor management and improper oversight, of the $6.1 million spent on the conferences, as much as $762,000 were reported to have been ‘unauthorized, unnecessary, and/or wasteful spending,’” the letter stated.
The most recent letter from Collins includes new questions asking for documented justifications for bonuses given to VA employees for their role in planning some of the most wasteful elements of the Orlando conferences. The Assistant Secretary for VA’s Human Resources and Administration office resigned from his position after the OIG report.
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