VA Whistleblower Protection Office Retaliated Against Its Own Whistleblowers, Report Claims – By Richard Sisk (Military.com) / March 6 2020
The office set up within the Department of Veterans Affairs to protect whistleblowers has itself engaged in retaliation against its own staff in policy disputes, according to a report by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight (POGO).
The POGO report alleges that a climate of intimidation exists at the VA’s Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection (OAWP), which was created in 2017 at the urging of President Donald Trump to root out corruption and safeguard those who come forward to charge wrongdoing.
Citing 20 anonymous current and former staffers at OAWP, the report alleges that an OAWP supervisor, a former Army colonel, was fired for refusing orders not to cooperate with investigators from the VA’s Office of Inspector General. Another staffer was demoted for the same reason, the report states.
The report also alleges that a toxic work environment exists under Dr. Tamara Bonzanto, an assistant VA secretary and head of OAWP since January 2019.
Bonzanto, a former Navy corpsman, allegedly made demands to clear up case backlogs while failing to define procedures to carry out her orders, the report found.
“It is unacceptable that the office created to protect whistleblowers at the Department of Veterans Affairs is retaliating against whistleblowers,” Liz Hempowicz, director of public policy at POGO, said in a statement on the report.
Continue to article: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/03/06/va-whistleblower-protection-office-retaliated-against-its-own-whistleblowers-report-claims.html
