Photo Credit: Daily CallerA report released by the inspector general for the Veteran Affairs Department (VA) has discovered incredible levels of fraud and abuse, detailing extensive retaliation against whistleblowers, Federal News Radio reports.

Along with whistleblower harassment come findings of lying to investigators and procurement fraud, with the main culprit being Susan Taylor, the deputy chief procurement officer in the Veterans Health Administration’s Procurement and Logistics Office (VHA).

The 82-page report shows that Taylor used her office for private gain in awarding a contract to FedBid, a reverse auction service, whose executives also interfered in the process by preventing the VA from operating in an honest and impartial manner.

According to a shocking revelation from the inspector general, FedBid, in its own words, planned to “‘storm the castle,’ use a ‘heavy-handed- puncher,’ to ‘rally the troops up on the Hill,’ have ‘enough top cover to overwhelm,’ to ‘unleash the hounds,’ to ‘assassinate [Mr. Frye’s] character and discredit him,’ and to keep ‘close hold’ of nonpublic information.’”

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Photo Credit: TownHallRemember the VA scandal? You might be forgiven for letting it slip your mind, given that (a) its series of disgraceful revelations was several crises ago, and (b) that Congress has passed decent (but not permanent) legislation to “fix” the system. But there’s a reason why the CNN correspondent who’s covered this story most closely bluntly questioned the feasibility of RIGHTING the VA ship without “throwing out” vast numbers of its managers: An endemic culture of corruption and accountability-dodging. Drew Griffin’s skepticism was no doubt reinforced when the department’s Inspector General released its findings in late August, concluding that it could not definitively link the VA’s pervasive and deliberate manipulation of wait times and care lists to any deaths. Critics immediately questioned the methodology behind that verdict, complaining that the IG’s standards of proof made were “virtually impossible” to meet. Whistleblowers had previously alleged that VA corruption had resulted in at least 40 deaths in the Phoenix area alone. Sources told CBS News that agency officials successfully pressured the IG to “water down” its findings:

Two of the doctors who first blew the whistle on the veterans’ deaths in Phoenix say the inspector general botched the investigation and went too easy on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). One says the IG engaged in a whitewash of what happened there, bowing to pressure from inside the agency, reports CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews. The issue surrounds the investigation into whether more than 40 veterans at the Phoenix VA died while waiting to see the doctor. The IG’s final report in August concluded that it “[could not] conclusively assert” that long wait times “caused the deaths of these veterans.” According to one whistleblower who spoke to CBS News, however, that crucial assertion was not in the original draft of the report. He told CBS News that the Inspector General added the line about how wait times did not cause the deaths at the last minute. Our source, who works at VA headquarters and who spoke exclusively to CBS News, said officials inside the agency asked for a revision of the first draft. That’s standard practice, but in this case the source said it amounted to pressure on Inspector General Richard Griffin to add a line to water down the report. “The organization was worried that the report was going to damn the organization,” the whistle-blower said. “And therefore it was important for them to introduce language that softened that blow.”

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