VA officials got $142M in bonuses amid scandal
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/259875-va-officials-got-142m-in-bonuses-amid-scandal
VA officials got $142M in bonuses amid scandal
By Bradford Richardson - 11/11/15 04:18 PM EST
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials collected more than $142 million in bonuses in 2014, the same year the agency was under fire for protracted delays in giving veterans treatment and fake patient wait lists.
Despite a pay freeze for top-level officials, the agency continued to pay performance-based bonuses to nearly half of its employees nationwide, according to data published by USA Today on Wednesday. Among the payouts were bonuses of $4,000 to $8,000 for officials who managed the construction of a Denver facility that is more than $1 billion over budget. An executive who was the subject of a report detailing mismanagement at a facility in St. Cloud, Minn., also took in a performance bonus of $4,000. Roughly 156,000 executives, managers, and employees received bonuses for their work in 2014. The average bonus was more than $900.
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News of the bonuses follows a that report alleged two VA regional directors intentionally shuffled senior staffers to new locations, claiming lavish relocation expenses along the way, in order to get around the pay freeze.
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