Paul VA Official Faces Possible Criminal Charges

Two Department of Veterans Affairs executives inappropriately used their positions to benefit from the VA’s relocation and benefits policies, according to an inspector general’s report released on September 28.

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.

In a response to the VA Inspector General report, departmental officials agreed to more closely examine use of the moving expenses program for signs of abuse and launch a disciplinary review against a number of senior executives, including Under Secretary for Benefits Allison Hickey, for improper involvement or negligence with the program.

VA officials concurred with the recommendations and promised to take action by the end of the year.

The inspector general said its investigation revealed Rubens’ reassignment to Philadelphia was approved by VA brass six days before the previous Philadelphia director, Robert McKenrick, was reassigned to Los Angeles.

The IG said regulations allowed for the officials to keep their high salaries even though they took jobs that paid lower on the scale and decreased their responsibilities. Once St. Paul opened up, according to the IG, Graves contacted Rubens, saying “I’d like to throw my name in for consideration for St. Paul…”

“This report is simply the latest in a long line of investigations showing VA officials helping themselves instead of helping America’s veterans”, Miller said.

While auditors found the more than $274,000 in relocation expenses were generally allowable, the new position had significantly less responsibility but Rubens retained her annual salary of $181,497. Of that it payed out $321,000 in annual salary increases, $1.3 million for legitimate relocation expenses and $140,000 in unjustified relocation incentives.

“The IG’s report proves that VA’s corrosive culture extends to the highest levels of VBA leadership and must be immediately rooted out once and for all”, said Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, in a statement emailed to reporters September 28. “VA will fully cooperate with other federal agencies as required as we continue our daily effort to improve the timeliness and quality of care and services delivered to our nation’s veterans”.

“It is clear that from day one VA officials were using the relocation expenses program to enrich themselves…The actions of the individuals uncovered by this report are a discredit to VA employees and veterans”.

It stops short of recommending punishment for specific executives who benefited from the transfers, but recommended that VA attorneys consider whether any of the moving expenses can be recouped.

“Our analysis of available evidence indicated two directors appear to have been inappropriately coerced to leave positions they were not interested in leaving to create vacancies for Ms. Rubens and Ms. Graves”, the IG report said. An email exchange between the two indicates that not only did Hickey want to help Rubens move to the position, she likely knew Rubens was somehow involved in creating the vacancy.

And for a few of the other transfers, the vacancies were not even announced before the relocation incentive was offered.