Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL)
WASHINGTON, DC — Millions of dollars in VA employee bonuses were paid out years after they should have ended due to a lack of department oversight, according to a new report from the Office of the Inspector General.
In addition, nearly one-third of recruitment, relocation and retention incentive bonuses handed out between 2020 and 2023 were filed with insufficient or incomplete paperwork justifying their use.
At the same time, VA’s use of hiring incentives has dropped dramatically in the past 6 months, contributing to what Democrats are calling a conscious attempt by VA Secretary Doug Collins to hobble VA’s direct-care system to the benefit of private care.
In 2017, the OIG released a report detailing oversight weaknesses in VA’s bonus system stretching back to 2014. In that report, OIG found VA was lacking full justification for 33% of its bonus payments, totaling $158 million. The report included recommendations that the department better standardize its bonus payment system and set up internal controls to monitor compliance with department rules for how bonuses should be used.
In response, VA moved oversight from the facility level to the VISN level and created quality assurance teams to oversee bonus approval. However, according to the latest OIG report, while those teams identified errors after the fact, they did not work to address the systemic issues that led to the incomplete justifications in the first place. They also worked reactively, rather than proactively, preventing bonuses from being processed and paid with insufficient justifications.
According to the most recent report, 30% of bonuses are still lacking paperwork, with the amount impacted growing to nearly $341 million. OIG also identified 28 employees who continued to receive annual retention incentives years after the bonuses were set to expire, costing VA $4.6 million.
VA leaders admitted their mistakes and agreed they need to develop a better approach to overseeing bonus payments.
“We need a more proactive approach, and we’re shifting responsibility to the VISNs to do that on the front end rather than the back end,” testified David Perry, VA’s chief officer of workforce management, at a House VA Oversight Subcommittee hearing. “What we saw in 2017 when it was down at the facility level was we had 150 ways of doing it. We’ve made improvements since then [but still] need improvements to make sure [VISNS] are doing it consistently and according to policy.”
The PACT Act expanded VA’s ability to use hiring incentives to help the agency prepare for the surge of veterans entering the system. While under President Joe Biden, VA made extensive use of those provisions, the new administration has cut back significantly.
According to the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), VA made use of retention incentives approximately 20,000 times under President Joe Biden but only 7,000 under President Donald Trump. Recruitment incentives were used 6,000 times last year and only 1,000 this year.
Although the change can be at least partially explained by the overall federal hiring freeze and a push by VA to reduce its workforce, VA should still be using bonuses to keep existing staff from leaving critical roles, Ramirez argued. And, while VA leaders have repeatedly stressed that the reduction efforts are not impacting mission-critical roles, she cited VA hiring data that suggests otherwise.
“VA has lost 4,144 employees in mission-critical occupations as defined by VA since the beginning of this fiscal year,” Ramirez said. “[Under Biden, VA] only lost 111 employees in mission-critical occupations in the same period in 2024.”
According to VA workforce numbers from June, VA had lost 2,129 RNs since the start of the fiscal year, 751 physicians, 1,283 medical support assistants and 491 social workers. Most commonly cited in exit interviews as a reason for leaving was job stress and pressure. However, employees also frequently cited lack of trust and confidence in senior leaders.
“Any quality leader who got this feedback in an exit interview should do some serious self-reflection,” Ramirez declared. “The VA has a failure of leadership crisis, and Secretary Collins is to blame.”
Union leaders view this last statement as confirmation that the contract cancellations are at least in part retaliatory.
“The real reason Collins wants AFGE out of the VA is because we have successfully fought against disastrous, anti-veteran recommendations from the Asset Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission which would have shut down several rural VA hospitals and clinics, opposed the Trump administration’s plan dismantle veteran health care through the cutting of 83,000 jobs and consistently educated the American people about how private, for-profit veteran healthcare is more expensive and results in worse outcomes for veterans,” declared AFGE President Everett Kelley. “We don’t apologize for protecting veteran healthcare and will continue to fight for our members and the veterans they care for.”
Other evidence backs up Kelley’s claim of retaliation. A White House fact sheet detailing the reasoning behind the executive order noted that “certain federal unions have declared war on President Trump’s agenda” and the largest federal union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is “widely filing grievances to block Trump policies.”
In April, VA announced the exemption of eight smaller unions that had not been involved in litigation from the executive order.
Union protections and patient care are not at odds, with studies showing that patient care improves in hospitals where nurses are unionized, National Nurses United pointed out in a statement following VA’s announcement. “We will continue to fight for and assert our constitutionally guaranteed collective-bargaining rights and to speak freely against policies that hurt veterans and the public,” the statement declared. “That is our duty as nurses, and we will continue to be fierce advocates for our patients.”
