The document summarizes issues facing civil servants and veterans at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It notes that over 12,000 employment discrimination claims have been filed against the VA in the last 6 years. Despite strategic plans to modernize, the VA fails to hold officials accountable for breaking civil rights laws. Case studies describe discrimination, retaliation against whistleblowers who report issues, and document tampering that harms veterans' benefits claims. Lawsuits allege the VA benefits system discriminates against homeless veterans. Wait times for initial and appealed claims have increased significantly in recent years.

1. A Danger to Civil
Servants and
America’s Veterans

2. In 2013, VA workforce
totaled approximately
312,841 employees.*
2013 VA Performance and Accountability Report
*FTE-Full time equivalent employees (312,841)

3. HEALTH
CARE
 Operates
nation's
largest
integrated
health care
system
BENEFITS

Provides
financial &
other forms of
aid to Service
members,
Veterans, their
dependents &
Source: www.va.gov
survivors.

4. No FEAR DATA available online from VA website.
29 CFR 1614.704
In the last six fiscal
years (FY08-FY13),
over 12 thousand
EEO employment
claims have been
filed against the
VA.

5. Despite Strategic Plan to:
“transform VA into a
modern 21st century
organization that would
efficiently care for Veterans
and their families,” fifty
(50) years after the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, VA
fails to hold officials
accountable for breaking
the law.
Referenced-FY2014-2020 Strategic Plan dated Aug. 8, 2013

6. A workforce culture
of cover-up,
discrimination &
retaliation adds to
program
inefficiencies.

7. Saunders v Secretary, Veterans Affairs
In Saunders, the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission found
officials at the VA Medical Center in
New Orleans, Louisiana guilty of
discrimination, “abusing the rules” &
“retaliating against the complainant
for his protected EEO activity.”
Source: Saunders v Secretary, Veterans Affairs
EEOC Final Agency Decision, ( p.12.)

8. BLACKLISTING
In Saunders, the
EEOC also found
“evidence that VA
officials retaliated
against other
employees
who filed EEO
complaints.”
Source: Saunders v Secretary, Veterans Affairs
EEOC Final Agency Decision, (p.12.)

9. In Decatur v Veterans Affairs:
officials failed to impose
discipline on officials
who were found guilty of
unlawful conduct.
“Taking corrective
action and appropriate
disciplinary action
immediately in all
cases where there
is a finding of
retaliation and
reprisal.”

10. Whistleblower Oliver Mitchell was
once employed as a Patient Services
Assistant at the nation’s largest VA
Medical Center in Los Angeles,
California in the Radiology
department.
Mitchell had received an EXCELLENT
performance rating before filing a complaint
of VA’s fraud,
March 2009.
waste and abuse in
Veterans Affairs Whistleblower, 05/21/2013, Peter Milosheff, Bronx Times

11. Complaint alleged VA
officials failed to provide
Diagnostic Services
(MRI’s) to thousands of
veterans.
Complaint also alleges officials retaliated
against him after he refused an order to
delete a 10 year BACKLOG of orders &
service request for the Radiology Imaging
Department.
Read more at Veterans Affairs Whistleblower,
Bronx Times, P. Milsosheff May 21, 2013.

12. The Office of Special
Counsel chose NOT to
refer the case for
investigation even after
hearing an audio of VA
officials discussing
purging of documents.
Brave Whistleblower
HEAR AUDIO AT:
http://youtu.be/XnvhdV2DD0g

14. “If a key piece of
evidence has been
shredded, it can
result in the denial
of a claim…”
Source: US NEWS, Amanda Ruggeri
October 31, 2008

15. Document
Tampering and
Mishandling at
the U.S.
Veterans
Affairs
March 3,.2009
DEPARTMENT-OF-VETERANSAFFAIRS----House-Congressional-Report111th-Congress

16. FierceHealthcare,
August 17, 2010, Alicia Caramenico

17. Rick Maze, Oct. 16, 2008
ArmyTimes
Veterans Affairs regional offices were
ordered to STOP shredding
documents after an investigation
found some benefits claims &
supporting documents among piles
of papers waiting to be destroyed.

19. The Editorial Board,
USATODAY, August 21, 2013

20. U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 111-SC-651408

22. “VA has deprived me of my
DUE PROCESS, PROPERTY
and CIVIL RIGHTS because
they committed CRIMINAL
ACTS in my 21-year-old VA
case.
VA officials destroyed my
original claim file in 1995 and
altered medical records in
2012 .”
Chauncey L. Robinson, U.S. Veteran
See Bronx Times: Dept. Of Veterans Affairs Scandal:
Peter Milosheff, 12/05/2009

23. VA Backlog Files Stacked
So High, They Posed
Safety Risk to Staff
PBS NEWSHOUR April 2, 2013, P.J. Tobia
Office of Audit Evaluations August 9, 2012 ,12-00244 -241

24. Service ranges
from:
World War II
Korea
Vietnam
the Gulf
& intervening
peacetime operations
FY 2014 – 2020 VA Strategic Plan. (p11)

25. Veterans Die
Waiting For
Benefits As
VA Claims
Backlog
Builds
Feb. 9, 2013, Jamie Reno, The Daily Beast

26. In 2009, it took about 161
days for an initial claim
rating, which determines
whether veteran qualifies
for disability payment .
“It now takes about 273 days
- nine months - to rate
a claim.”
UPDATED! House Speaker John Boehner challenges
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki on veterans claims delays,
Washington Examiner, Mark Flatten, February 25, 2013

27. “Appeals
typically add four
to five years before a case is
resolved.”
UPDATED! House Speaker John Boehner challenges
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki on veterans claims delays,
Mark Flatten | FEBRUARY 25, 2013

28. Class action lawsuit
against VA’s Greater
Los Angeles
Healthcare System.
Suit contends that
VA’s benefits program
discriminates against
homeless veterans.
Case Number : CV1104046

29. Class action addresses
issues of systemic,
intentional deprivation of
Veterans’ rights &
intentional infliction of
emotional, physical &
painful distress on those
honorable Veterans.
Case No.: 12-330-CV LMB filed 6/12/12

31. Video by.TW.J.

32. Sign petition: Mandate Discipline
For Public Officials Who Break Civil
Rights Laws
Go to http://www.change.org/petitions

33. The Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C)
c4c@coalition4change.org