The Department of Veterans Affairs is about to face the largest reconstruction of its life, VA Secretary Robert McDonald announced Monday.
The new VA Secretary claimed he will fire some 1,000 workers who have violated the company’s values. The Department will also hire an additional 28,000 medical professions to better address the demand of treating the nation's 22 million veterans.
According to McDonald’s letter to his employees, the VA intends to:
- Establish a new VA-wide customer service organization to ensure we provide top-level customer service to Veterans.
- Establishing a single regional framework that will simplify internal coordination, facilitate partnering and enhance customer service.
- Work with our partners to establish a national network of Community Veteran Advisory Councils to coordinate better service delivery with local, state and community partners.
- Identify opportunities for VA to realign its internal business processes into a shared services model in which organizations across VA leverage the same support services, to improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase productivity across VA.
The overhaul is long overdue.
The department’s morose dereliction of duty left veterans dying as they waited for proper health care. Since the VA scandal, almost no one has been held accountable for the death of our nation’s servicemen. In fact, two senior executives suspected of wrongdoing quickly resigned in order to retire with their cushy pensions intact.
In order for the initiative to succeed, the department must follow-through on firing the individuals who have caused mistrust, Florida Rep. Jeff Miller (Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs) explained Monday.
“So far VA hasn’t done that – as evidenced by the fact that the majority of those who caused the VA scandal are still on the department payroll,” he said.
Hear more from the VA Secretary below: