During an NBC “Meet the Press” interview, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald claimed that, since he became secretary, he fired 900 people, 60 that manipulated wait times. As it turns out, that’s not exactly true. The Washington Post,
Yet McDonald is incorrect saying 60 employees who manipulated wait times were fired.
Disciplinary actions for 75 employees have been proposed since June 3, 2014, according to the VA’s most recent weekly briefing to the House and Senate committees on veterans affairs. These actions were related to patient scheduling, record manipulation, appointment delays and/or patient deaths…
Of the 75 employees, only eight employees have actually been removed, as of Feb. 13, 2015. Twenty-three cases were pending. Five employees resigned before a decision was made on their case. Others were demoted, were on probationary termination, had some other disciplinary action, or had no action taken at all…
As for the 900 employees being fired since mid-2014, Hutton said those employees have been fired for cause “either through removal action or during a probationary period.” Most of the 900 employees were with the Veterans Health Administration, and vary in location, pay grades and reasons, Hutton said. Reasons include poor performance and absenteeism…
He earns Four Pinocchios for wildly inflating his “firing” statistics.
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