Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-8) and Patrick Meehan (PA-7) questioned the Undersecretary of Veterans Affairs for Benefits Allison Hickey in a letter about the array of destroyed and concealed mail from veterans discovered at VA Regional Offices across the country. Fitzpatrick and Meehan have released photographs depicting alleged filing cabinets and boxes full of unanswered mail from veterans, obtained from a whistleblower.
In the letter, Meehan and Fitzpatrick wrote that reports of discarded and destroyed mail “suggest a pattern of misconduct that could well extend throughout the VA.”
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Click here to read the letter written to General Hickey
The reports indicate that mail from veterans to VA facilities may have been mishandled, ignored or destroyed in the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Oakland regional offices.
Testimony from whistleblowers in Philadelphia indicate that 96 boxes and 8 filing cabinets full of unanswered or ignored mail were brought to supervisory attention. Mail then “disappeared” after management was alerted and believed to be destroyed, according to the testimony.
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The Inspector General released a separate testimony reporting another 68 boxes of mail were discovered at the location during a separate, unannounced inspection.
In their letter, Fitzpatrick and Meehan have asked for information on internal controls on incoming mail from veterans and bonus payments made to any employees responsible.
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“The fact that data may have been manipulated so that certain VA supervisors and employees could get bonuses, at the expenses of veterans’ pension and disability claims languishing in the backlog, is unconscionable and deserving of future investigation,” said Fitzpatrick.
The letter is in response to a hearing regarding the turbulent VA Scandal which was held Monday night in Washington D.C.. Reports announced at the hearing stated the Philadelphia VA Regional Office had been responsible for an estimated $2 million in backlogged benefits to veterans.
Subsequently, Fitzpatrick urged an investigation into the local office yesterday.
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Undersecretary Hickey invited the Congressman for an in-depth tour and briefing by the Philadelphia office during a House Committee on Veterans Affairs on July 14, Fitzpatrick and Meehan accepted her invite in the letter they sent out this morning.
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