In what has become typical and usual, the following stories arrive:
“From 2019 to 2021, Ira Westbrook of Bozeman, Montana, served as the fiduciary of an elderly relative who had suffered a stroke and became disabled. A multi-agency investigation found that, during these 16 months, Westbrook stole more than $57,000 in Social Security and VA benefits and used the stolen funds to purchase personal items, including a Jeep Wrangler, a travel trailer, and other day-to-day expenses.”
“From 2016 until 2018, Sloane Signal-Debose of Slidell, Louisiana, served as the fiduciary of a veteran who needed assistance managing his finances. During that time, she took more than $100,000 from the veteran’s accounts, used it as the down payment on a home in her name, and used additional funds from the veteran to pay contractors working on the home. Signal-Debose then submitted false records to VA to hide her misuse of the veteran’s funds. The former fiduciary pleaded guilty to misappropriating funds and faces up to five years in federal prison. The VA OIG conducted this investigation.”
“In 2013, Brandi Goldman of Jonesboro, Arkansas, was married to a US Army reservist who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in a service-connected accident. As a result of this injury, her husband had many serious physical challenges, and Goldman was appointed as his guardian and fiduciary. Between April 2015 and November 2017, Goldman received more than $258,600 in VA disability payments and $36,000 in Social Security payments. During that timeframe, she withdrew close to $200,000 in cash and accrued about $900 in ATM and overdraft fees. Goldman admitted to spending much cash to fund her methamphetamine habit, spending $150 on methamphetamine two to three times per week. She also admitted that five other people moved into the residence with her and her husband, none of whom paid rent or contributed to expenses, some of whom she regularly gave cash to. She also admitted to paying $68,000 in cash for another home, furnishings for the home, multiple vehicles, and a motor home. Goldman was sentenced to 20 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and $143,000 in restitution after previously pleading guilty to misappropriation by a fiduciary. The VA OIG and Social Security Administration OIG conducted the investigation.”
Why are these stories of particular interest to the supreme legislative body in the United States of America? The executive branch has refused to police its branch of government, and crimes like this have become all too familiar. You, the Congressional bodies of these the United States, are duty-bound and sworn to perform two jobs, scrutinize the executive branch (harshly when necessary), and write laws. You have recently failed too often in monitoring the executive branch, and this story perfectly represents what happens when the executive branch is not examined minutely! Tell the US Public who put you in elected office, how these crimes continue and what programs and processes they MUST change to prevent them in the future.
By pleading for the legislative branch to scrutinize and audit the executive branch minutely, I am in no way condoning or diminishing the personal accountability of those who committed crimes. These three examples are from the October and November press releases of 2022. The widespread ability to commit fraud is a symptom of a more significant problem at the VA. Their leaders have consistently been able to boondoggle, evade, and profit from abusing veterans through designed incompetence, criminal neglect, and obtuse actions. When will Congressional leaders take action to clean up the Federal Government in general and the VA specifically?
The US House of Representatives holds the purse strings for the executive branch; use this leverage to claw back your powers and authority to balance the Federal Government and demand accountability from those empowered to lead their designated branches of the executive branch of government. Let’s talk about patterns; in less than 45 days, three cases of fiduciary fraud were closed, and the speed of closing these cases has escalated throughout 2022. The American people will see more, not less, of these fraudsters being underreported by the US Media before the year ends.
Shifting slightly, let’s talk about government employees and the need for more scrutiny of the executive branch.
“Bruce Minor, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to two years in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $462,256 in restitution for his scheme to embezzle money from the Philadelphia VA Medical Center. Between December 2015 and September 2019, Minor, a former travel clerk, created fraudulent travel reimbursement claims in the names of at least three other VA medical center employees. He then diverted the funds into bank accounts he controlled. The VA OIG investigated this case.”
“Kyhati Undavia, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. From December 2012 to December 2018, Undavia hired employees to market Memorial Pharmacy, which she controlled and operated, to physicians as a place to submit compounded drug prescriptions. Instead of providing prescriptions directly to the patients who could select a pharmacy of their choice, physicians sent the prescriptions directly to Memorial Pharmacy. Then, Undavia paid the physicians illegal kickbacks for the prescriptions. Beneficiaries often received medicated creams that they did not need or want. Undavia received approximately $22 million from TRICARE, Department of Labor Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, and CHAMPVA for the prescriptions.”
These stories also fall into the same timeframe mentioned above. But, they are not the only stories from 2022 where VA employees conducted long-term fraud for personal profit. Here’s the rub: hundreds of additional employees knew of these schemes, were probably running their schemes, and haven’t been caught, and nothing is being done by VA leadership to cease the fraud and abuse of veterans by VA employees. There is a culture of corruption at the VA, long hidden by scheming and abusive leaders and condoned by previous Congresses, that must be stopped! What will you, the congressional leaders of the United States, do to halt this insanity, demand personal accountability, and clean house of the designed incompetence that allows these criminal activities to flourish? The American People are waiting!
The following site holds press releases for the VA specifically, but investigations often cross into Social Security, the Department of Defense, state investigatory bodies, the FBI, and more. Suppose nothing else is learned from only perusing this site, that more scrutiny needs to be done to every single department of the executive branch. In that case, we, the American People, might count ourselves lucky. However, this is not the case. The rot from poor leadership, criminal mismanagement, and supreme dereliction of duty is etched deeply into the workings of the executive branch operations, and more needs additional discussion.
03 November 2022, the VA-OIG released a report titled, “VHA Progressed in the Follow-Up of Canceled Appointments during the Pandemic but Could Use Additional Oversight Metrics.” The report only covers the time from 2020 to the present, and regular readers know that the VA has been failing on every measurable metric for over a decade. To couch in politically correct non-threatening jargon, how designed incompetence continues to hamper and hinder is not surprising. That the current Congress has bought the excuses hook, line, and sinker, from the inept VA leadership, was not surprising either. This article is about the future, and the next Congress MUST take immediate and direct action to root cause and improve VA performance!
31 October 2022, the VA-OIG released the following: “Review of VA’s Staffing and Vacancy Reporting under the MISSION Act of 2018.” This is a report about how the VA continues failing to report improvements in hiring practices to the legislative branch. The report details VA leadership’s continued failures through designed incompetence. Tell me, if you were in charge of a report for your business that is essential to receiving funding, would you keep your job if, from 2018 to the present, you still cannot report what is happening and why and be held personally accountable for a report to a legislative body? Don’t take my word for it; read the report, and be careful of the temperature of your blood boiling!
Unfortunately, this behavior is the normal operating procedure for the VA. The same can be easily and quickly witnessed in every other Federal Department of the US Government under the executive branch. As the legislative branch, you are duty-bound to investigate and demand compliance in a timely manner. Where have you been; more importantly, will you allow these problems to continue or kill them?
Do you doubt designed incompetence is a standard operating procedure? Let’s discuss another part of the MISSION Act of 2018 that the VA-OIG recently reported on, “Additional Actions Needed to Fully Implement and Assess Impact of the Patient Referral Coordination Initiative,” dated 27 October 2022. The Referral Coordination Initiative (RCI) is a program to improve timely access to care using community providers. RCI sounds good in theory, but as usual, in the practical application, the program is full of self-serving charlatans, unsupervised or poorly supervised people, weak policies and procedures, and zero accountability! Plus, when the veteran runs into problems with local providers, reporting these problems is so time-consuming as to be ineffectual at best!
A personal example that was reported to the VA when it happened, and nothing was done but to issue the provider a check. Dr. Herekar, Neurologist, clinic: Advanced Neurology Epilepsy & Sleep Center, El Paso, Texas. A VA Primary Care Provider wrote to my employer on VA Letterhead with a wet signature, declaring my inability to wear a mask. Dr. Herekar’s office was presented with this letter and hassled me before both appointments for not wearing a mask, becoming hostile, argumentative, and a nuisance over the mask issue, even after I complied with putting on a face shield. 23 September 2021, over Facebook messenger, I was informed that I would be invited to find a different provider due to my refusal to wear a mask. Imagine that; Facebook Messenger became the medium of choice for ending a patient’s relationship with a medical provider. What did the VA tell me to do; file endless paperwork with TRICARE and then disregard the problem’s urgency. Worse, the medical care for the neurological issues decreased, and I have had to wait, sit, and hope for future consideration and possible treatment. Does this sound like an aberration; it is, unfortunately not!
The VA Leadership realized if community care succeeds, they lose power to control the destiny of veterans. Thus, they implemented the MISSION Act of 2018 with such feet dragging, designing incompetence into every facet of the program, to promote more complaints to Congress, and hopefully to squash the MISSION Act of 2018 and end community care. 07 November 2022, while waiting to speak to representatives of Community Care Services at the VA Out Patient Clinic in EL Paso, the veteran being served ahead of me was told, “The provider does not fax documents, so you will need to go to the provider, and then walk the paperwork back to us.”
The normalcy of reporting providers not submitting paperwork was beyond the pale. Not having secure document transfer processes between the VA and local providers is technically abysmal and unacceptable. Are we in the 1990s, where the cream of technology is sending and receiving a fax? The designed incompetence includes Luddite-like technical disciplines, and the VA_OIG and the Congress should be furious; I know I am!
Before the MISSION Act of 2018, I was making 5 and 6 trips to local providers to retrieve hard copies of medical records, going to the VA Records office, submitting the documents, and then following up 7-14 days later to find out I had to repeat this process as my VA Providers still had not received the records of my interactions with community providers. Interestingly, in 2020 I discovered the treatment records still had not been submitted from community providers into my VA eHealth Record, from treatment received from 2012-2016. Is the pattern of designed incompetence clearer? Is the VA Leadeship’s intransigence more apparent? How about the fraud, waste, and abuse of VA resources?
You, the congressional leaders, must take immediate action, not wait, not hold hearings, concrete action to demand compliance from the executive branch leaders to the congressional leaders who are held accountable to the citizens. America is a representative republic, and it is time the bureaucrats learned the citizens are awake and interested. You, the congressional leaders, are the people’s tool for correcting government abuses; you have two years to show you are dedicated to that principle, or you will be replaced!
© Copyright 2022 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images. Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.
The Department of Veterans Affairs – Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) regularly crows about 
Unfortunately, the VA-OIG reports discussed are not even the tip of the iceberg of what is happening. My apologies, dear readers; I have been remiss in my reporting duties. Why have I been remiss, because my health went sideways since April when I had a medical procedure completed that was advised but not appropriate. The VHA and VBA are sick organizations and desperately need scrutiny and standards, new leadership, and written organizational policies. Help me force these nefarious characters into the sunshine for a good dose of sunshine disinfectant, and let’s change the world for the better.
Consider something with me: if you need to proactively reach out to a customer using a phone, would you call that customer’s or his spouse’s phone? Customer service is all about the customer experience; in an effort to provide customer support, do you call a customer’s or their spouse’s phone? The answer is obvious, yet the EL Paso VA Outpatient Clinic did the exact opposite of common sense, even though the customer had, within two previous hours, called the EL Paso VA OPC using his phone number on record.
What connects all three of these criminals; the failures of VA leadership to scrutinize their employees. Does this remind you of additional leaders, maybe those in Congress who continue to refuse to scrutinize the executive branch? The US Constitution established three co-equal branches, the judicial protects the Constitution, the Executive operates the government, and the Legislative has two jobs write laws for the executive branch to operate and scrutinize the executive branch as it operates. Each branch answers to the other, and all branches must operate inside the US Constitution. America needs the legislative branch to begin doing its job, and we, the voters, are the only way to begin demanding the change we need!
There is no excuse for behaving like the VA’s bureaucratic legions behave. Bureaucrats, from the city government (including the school board) to the Federal Government, you hold a sacred trust to act better than you are currently performing. I refuse you any leeway for acting like pompous overlords when you are paid through forced taxation! You have trespassed upon my patience and kindness long enough, and the day of reckoning has arrived. You work for me; you work for every taxpayer and citizen in this country, and you have violated our trust, charged us too much and too often, and if you do not begin to show yourself worthy of the sacred trust, we will force you from your cushy jobs and hold you liable for the monies you have squandered! The law is on our side; you need to begin showing you honor our trust and investment forthwith!
The US Senate passed the non-infrastructure bill, loaded with everything but infrastructure initiatives and a bloated price tag that is not paid for, which will increase inflation and the National Deficit. The US Senate is on its way to passing a $3.5 Trillion spending spree, again no accountability, no restraints, not paid for, balloons the government, and robs freedoms and liberties from every American. Did you know all legislation that spends money is supposed to originate in the US House of Representatives?
Let’s talk about scientific facts for a moment, and if you like, feel free to look up the corresponding research. I am not a medical professional, epidemiologist, virologist, or chemist; however, I can read a research paper, and this is what I have found. One of the reasons it is so difficult to vaccinate against viral infections is the ever-changing viral infection itself. Essentially, the virus mutates a lot, and these generational mutations tend to keep a vaccine from working effectively against a virus for very long. The only sure-fire way to protect a population against a viral infection is to allow the people to experience the viral infection and build herd immunity.
Paul Harvey is a hero of mine. I miss his voice on the radio. He exuded a calm demeanor, regardless of the terror, the trials, and the terribleness of the news reported and discussed. I do not have Paul Harvey’s sense of calm. When I heard about the 
Here’s the biggest rub, a veteran can be receiving care from the VA for MST at the VHA and still be denied MST on a VBA claim. I have not heard it working in reverse where a claim is being paid, but the VHA refuses care, but given the failures of the VA as an organization, I would not be surprised to learn this was occurring. How do I know that care can be provided for MST and not be allowed on a claim? I am among a number of MST victims, all-male, who have been regularly denied VBA claims but are receiving care for the psychological harm. Veterans talk to each other. I have heard the stories of fellow veterans being attacked, assaulted, molested, drugged, raped by male and female attackers, and heard how the VBA had revictimized them.
This week, the final three emails from the VA-OIG reflected a VISN wide comprehensive healthcare inspection (CHIp) conducted virtually, a VAMC/VAHCS CHIp conducted in Spokane, Washington, and a program report on the failures in the Veteran-Directed Care Program. The most interesting finding in the CHIps was how short the leadership teams had worked together, a month, and how many open positions for leaders there were, more than half. Talk about glaring symptoms of leadership failure, were the leadership teams broken up from employee turnover? If so, did the employees retire, or were they retired to avoid criminal convictions? With all the investigations for fraud, as discussed on these pages frequently, I can only guess how leaders churn in a VAMC/VAHCS/VISN.
It has been my pleasure to have lived in Arizona four separate times since 1996. Employment and pleasure have brought me relocation opportunities, and I have enjoyed my time in Arizona. However, since my return in 2005 to the present, I have feared for the soul of Arizona. I have watched as despicable and detestable politicians have won political races that never should have been won. I have witnessed governors act in cowardly and craven methods to thwart the people’s will. I have witnessed those elected to Federal Offices from Arizona stop being held accountable to the electorate until the politicians have set up a hegemony and no longer fear the ballot box. Most egregious of all, I have witnessed the veteran community become increasingly abused as every day ticks past.
Cease the sophistry of plastic language and do your job! End the tyranny of plastic words and work to aid the citizen in protecting their rights and freedoms from the ever-encroaching thieves of government and the bureaucrats spawned in the darkest pits of legislative fiat! So stand, every American citizen needs to stand and refuse to be governed until those elected are replaced with people willing to take action and honor the Rule of Law, holding previous politicians accountable and responsible for the mess America is currently suffering under. Enough is enough, and I have reached the end of my tolerance, and my cherubic demeanor has been replaced with a hunger for justice!
The first week of June is often a period of recovery. I have no idea why, but the first week of June is usually a recovery time. Maybe it was all those years in school; I honestly do not know. However, the world does not stop, and while the media goes 24/7 over the Memorial Day Gun Violence, stories are evolving that need your attention more. I do not say this lightly, as I understand those wounded and killed in gun violence are tragedies and cause for grief, but the corporate media has always used these “major stories” to allow other things to slip past.
Have you heard 
Have you heard the Federal Government remains hell bound and down on destroying the family but is explicitly 
To some of you, I am preaching to the choir; but sometimes the choir sings better when they have more knowledge. Please help sing louder. To others, what I am about to say is so far out of your current understanding that your brains might hurt; I am sorry. You will never understand snowflakes and trolls, but I am willing to take that chance!
Now, let’s talk about the 10-year plan, a $2.3 Trillion plan that is a “more-than-infrastructure proposal” but is nothing but the Green New Deal in disguise. So far, the best record for the details that have been released comes from 
Remember, our pattern for this insanity is from President Obama, who had a comfortable first two years due to a friendly House and Senate. They could not do these enviro-legislation issues due to US Constitutional problems, so President Obama used executive orders. Again and again, climate science has proven to be a money-sucking black hole for taxpayers while the limited few buy new jets, new luxury yachts and force restrictions upon everyone else.
In democratic society’s, there is a representative form of government, knowing and understanding the duties the elected officials are expected to perform will aid in measuring those currently holding office, and those seeking office more precisely. While this article is steered more towards the Republic of the United States, the principles are still the same for every democratic society across the globe.
The entire job of an elected congressional representative is to represent their district. That is the Summum Bonum of their elected duties. Yet, can you even get a straight answer from your elected representatives in a timely manner? Case in point, Rep. Debra Haaland (D), could not be bothered to help people in her district, but she sure blew her own trumpet declaring her work for her district. I have written letters to several representatives of the house over the years, and each year the response takes longer, the response is less useful, and the platitudes and emails proclaiming their work become more loquacious, braggadocio, and plastic. Where the words mean one thing, but the actions conducted are not in line with the words. I was once a member of Paul Ryan’s district. Rep. Paul Ryan (R), was considered to be a fiscal hawk, but he refused to perform his job of protecting America’s checkbook. Yet, in all the emails I received before his retirement, he was always talking about his skills and work in cutting the Federal Deficit. Despite his past fiscal conservative rhetoric, Speaker Ryan’s tenure as Speaker of the House—most of which coincided with periods of unified Republican control of the Federal Government—saw significant increases in Federal Government deficit spending. Hence, the question asked, do you feel represented by those elected to represent you?
While Speaker Ryan (R) was spending our children’s, children’s, children’s, money, his district saw massive job losses from the automotive industry, manufacturing tanked, and lob losses mounted, during which much of the rest of the country enjoyed a booming economy! When I asked Speaker Ryan why the disparity between his district financially failing, and the rest of the country booming, I received a letter discussing his fiscal genius and government cost cutting measures. My response was not worth the paper it was printed on, I left his letter in an outhouse, on a closed job site!
On the subject of scrutinizing the Federal Government, and handling with legislation the duties needed to clean the Federal Government workers from posts where they weaponize government for personal gain, the Department of Veterans Affairs – Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG) just reported some incredible examples of elected officials not scrutinizing properly!
The VA-OIG investigated a urologist in Des Moines, Iowa who did not have the proper authority to issue controlled substances in an operating room environment (DEA Registration). A Department of Veterans Affairs – Veterans Hospital Administration (VHA) memo had been received but never acted upon, the doctors were not notified in a timely manner that they needed the new authority to issue controlled substances, and the doctor is blamed for failure to obtain the proper authorities. Yet, how many administrators failed to perform their jobs and were never censured, held accountable, or required to suffer punishment for not timely notifying the practitioners of new requirements; none! If the doctor is censured, why not the administrative staff? The need to scrutinize the efforts of the employees of the Federal Government has never been more apparent, but the elected officials whose sworn duty it is to scrutinize, is being neglected en masse!
Yet, for my entire lifetime, I have seen the exact opposite occur, and fail miserably! The Federal Government needs elected representatives who will censure, scrutinize, and demand the bureaucrat’s obedience; but the elected representatives are not performing their job. Thus, the state legislature’s need to censure their Federal brethren and demand change. But that is not happening either. The mayors of America refuse to act to protect their citizens, and the citizen just keeps being abused by those who are legally bound to help the citizen! Thus, the question, based upon the performance of your elected officials to perform two jobs, make laws, and scrutinize government, do you feel represented?
DNC-Consulting 