Correction: Mcdonald Has Not Fired 900 Employees?

[broncovet]

I have enclosed a link below, which alleges Robert McDonald was not being truthful when he said he fired 900 employees. I have no idea how many he fired, but I do find the stastic that 2275 are fired in a normal year, but the 900 is much less than that, more than a little troubling.

However, it is my feeling that Mr. McDonald has, indeed, done more for Vets than any previous Secretary since 2002. I do feel its very necessary to trim some "bad wood" in VA. And, I think its the executives who need to go, not a few clerks following orders. Apparently only about 5 execs have been fired, and that's not enough, IMHO.

Given that Mr. McDonald has only been on the job a few months, AND, I have noticed positive improvements, personally, I think Mr. McDonald deserves a "hall pass" on this one. This being said, I do not think it helps Vets to "speed up" claims while "slowing down" appeals. It just takes the claim out of the "pending" pile, into the "appeal" pile and this does not help..it actually makes things worse. Again, tho, Im gonna give Mr. McDonald the "benefit of the doubt" hall pass on this one, since, I have seen improvements, not just "talk", like we saw with Spinseki.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/02/18/no-the-va-has-not-fired-60-people-for-manipulating-wait-time-data/

According to the Post:

Yet McDonald is incorrect in saying that 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. The proposed actions included removals, admonishment (a written letter of censure), reprimand (a stronger letter of censure), suspension of less than two weeks and probationary termination. Admonishment or reprimand letters can be removed from employees’ personnel files after two or three years. (Definitions for disciplinary actions are here.)

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.

end Washington Post quote.

Edited February 22, 2015 by broncovet (see edit history)