POGO is pleased to endorse the draft bill before this subcommittee’s consideration that would reform OAWP and bring it in line with longstanding POGO recommendations, which include establishing an OAWP-specific counsel and eliminating OAWP’s investigative authority.
At the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), whistleblowers heroically put their livelihoods on the line to ensure that veterans receive the best care possible. Disclosures by VA whistleblowers have not only exposed a network of systematic misconduct, medical negligence, and abuse, but also saved the lives of many patients and freed up taxpayer dollars to be put toward providing more resources to veterans in need.
In 2014, VA whistleblowers came forward to expose misconduct at a Phoenix, Arizona, VA facility. Facility managers deliberately falsified records to suggest that wait times were a reasonable length and that veterans were receiving timely care. In reality, approximately 1,400 veterans were waiting months to meet with a doctor; at least 40 of them died while waiting to be seen.1 Not only were the facility managers covering their tracks to avoid oversight on the part of the VA and its inspector general (the VA IG), but they were also using the fake waitlists to ensure they received personal performance bonuses.2
POGO responded to this scandal by working with the non-profit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America to invite whistleblowers to make disclosures so that our...
Melania Trump on Thursday (April 9) issued an unexpected public statement denying any connection to Jeffrey Epstein, pushing back against what she described as long-running false claims circulatin...