If you want greater insight into why lawmakers are so upset with the Department of Veterans Affairs, just read a recent about a senior official who “sent a 35-page memo to VA Secretary Robert McDonald in March accusing agency leaders of making a ‘mockery’ of federal acquisition laws and spending at least $6 billion a year in violation of contracting rules.”
Or better yet, read the actual memo by senior procurement official Jan R. Frye. Its language is scorching. At one point it says, “We have effectively ‘hidden’ our illegal transactions from public scrutiny.” And also, “it is simply incomprehensible to me that gross mismanagement of this magnitude is ‘business as usual’ here in the VA.”
Ah, but it is, unfortunately.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit or check out our for how to submit by e-mail or mail.
