It may take awhile, but sometimes, the truth actually surfaces for all the world to see!
Please don’t be confused, we are going to address money issues involving two different VA medical centers… DORN VAMC in Columbia, SC and the NORWOOD VAMC in Augusta, Georgia.
Actually, the COVID bonus-bucks scandal involves potentially all VA facilities world-wide. This includes 152 VA medical centers (VAMCs), and 1400 community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs). We selected the DORN VAMC because we love it so much.
WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE
A VA employee gave us a heads-up alert on a Washington Post story about how the VA improperly approved nearly $11 million in bonuses that VA executives decided to pocket for themselves. (ARTICLE by Washington Post Reporter Lisa Rein)
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough says he was not notified that VA leaders planned to give each other huge bonuses until after they were awarded to the “deserving” and self-serving VA executives.
Senior executives took full advantage of the VA goose that was laying huge golden eggs so they could all run out and buy new stuff.
The executives were ordered to pay the bonuses back, but several have yet to cough up the misappropriated bonus money. In some cases, the bonuses exceeded $100,000.
When Director David Omura of the Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina was escorted out of the building, we didn’t really know why.
Our sources on the ground said that COVID bonus money that was intended to go to people on the front line during the epidemic was never given to the people who actually did the work. Someone had absconded with the funds.
We still do not know if Omura, or is second in command Jeffery Soots pocketed the bonus money or just gave it out to friends and relatives.
These cases are apparently still going on. That’s why the Dorn VA Medical Center still has Omura’s picture proudly displayed in the lobby.
Imagine, you are a senior executive with the Veterans Administration and making in the neighborhood of $150,000+ per year, then you hear about a sweet little deal where our pathetic government is printing money faster than rabbits breed during the spring.
On top of your already high salary, you get an additional check for $100,000. Tell us that Christmas only comes once a year!!
Normally, we do not condone giving out bonuses to anyone in our government, but some of the VA medical staff were falling asleep standing up during that horrific COVID pandemic.
Just as soon as one veteran would pass away, they wheeled in ten more. While it was not as bloody as Pearl Harbor 1941, the death rate was high and getting worse every day. It was not a fun situation to be sure.
Medical staff worked literally day and night to help save countless lives. They’re hard work and dedication were recognized and Congress decided to appropriate $11,000 million dollars to be given to those who worked so hard and diligently.
HOW WOULD RUSSIA HANDLE IT?
When Russia sends a trainload of tires from Moscow to Vladivostok (Russia’s version of San Diego, CA), only about three tires will arrive.
This is because Russian government bureaucrats along the way steal the tires they need as the supply train heads for Russia’s main naval base in Vladivostok.
President Vladimir Putin has a way of dealing with thieves he doesn’t like. It’s a form of lead poisoning dispensed by an AK-47.
The Russian judicial (or, non-judicial) system has a tendency to tap-down some of the thievery and provide bureaucrats easier breathing with all those holes in their chests.
When Washington funded the COVID bonus money, it was up to senior VA executives to ensure the money got to the people it was intended for. Like the Russians stealing tires, some of the money got stuffed in pockets as the “supply train” headed out to the various VA facilities.
Unfortunately greed, graft and an ocean of corruption got in the way. Our hard-working, dedicated folks who saved so many lives were cheated out of those well deserved bonuses by people who are somewhat challenged in the personal-honor department.
Then when these American bureaucrats got caught, they got another sweetheart deal… they were told to pay it back and face no legal retribution.
Some were lead out of VA buildings in handcuffs, but that’s all for show to make VA employees think there is actual justice occurring in America… you know the drill. Americans and illegal aliens can now go to any retail store and steal whatever they want.
If you or I siphoned off federal dollars that we knew we were intended for others, we would be in federal prison right now. That, my friends, is the two-tiered judicial system that people are starting to recognize.
We know all too well, after reporting on the antics of the United States military, there are many who are above the law. “Equal Justice Under Law” is a fallacy, an enigma that far too many Americans actually believe.
THE MONEY GAMES AT THE
CHARLIE NORWOOD VAMC
We are getting reports from a few different sources that something is rotten in Augusta, but the email we received below is about the best one to describe the situation.
One of our readers emailed us the following…
There is something suspicious going on at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Augusta, Georgia. After January 1, 2024, apparently Director Robin E. Jackson, PhD has been instructing his money managers to take funds from all the service lines in the facility.
Hundreds to millions of dollars are being taken, with no justification or explanation. To top it off, the facility has “frozen” the hiring of essential staff needed to run the facility and care for America’s veterans. Obviously, the veterans who rely on the medical center will suffer as a result of this hiring freeze.
Some services have had up to sixteen (16) positions rejected at the request of the Director Jackson. Essential hospital equipment had been suspended. It’s even gotten to the point where requirements sent to contracting to process, have been halted and/or canceled at the Director’s request without informing the requesting service.
This means that departments who think they’re receiving a critical piece of hospital equipment don’t know their request has been tossed in the trash can.
No one is providing answers that make any sense. They first tried to say Congress didn’t provide funds to support the pay increase that was approved. What does that have to do with the hiring of all these analysts that work for the Director while halting of the hiring of essential front-line staff?
There’s something stinky going on in Denmark and the veterans and the community need to be made aware of how these decisions are affecting them.
We have folks on the ground in Augusta, Georgia trying to find out the mystery behind the shell-game being played by the Director and his money managers at Norwood VAMC.
If any of our readers or VA employees have information as to what is going on and why… feel free to contact us immediately. If you wish to remain anonymous, we are quite adept at doing just that.
When we find out why the money managers are siphoning off funds from the service lines, and why Director Jackson is cancelling important hospital equipment orders, we will do a follow-up story to let everyone know.
NOTE: As always, if you feel you have been maligned by anything reported above, contact us at once with your rebuttal. We only are interested in the truth, the whole truth and nothing but… the truth.
If you have additional information concerning either of the stories above or on other things you feel MC.com should be covering, please send it in. We don’t guarantee posting it, but we will give it serious consideration.
Thank you,
Editor-in-Chief
MilitaryCorruption.com