Veterans Affairs IG to investigate strange prosthetic purchases
Nathan Rubbelke • | June 16, 2015 | 4:21 pm
A series of strange prosthetic purchases at a Veterans Affairs hospital in New York City will be investigated by the federal agency's inspector general.
The Department of Veterans Affairs investigation will spotlight the use of purchase cards that hospital staff used to buy prosthetic legs and arms for veterans. The VA purchase cards, similar to a credit card, were swiped more than 2,000 times over two years. Each time, the amount was for $24,999, one dollar less than the cards' charging limit. In total, the Bronx hospital spent $54.4 million on the prosthetic purchases, the Washington Post reported.
Congress inquired about the payments in September 2012, but did not receive an official response from then-VA Secretary Eric Shinseki until July 2013. The VA intended to say that the records regarding the purchases had been moved and since destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, according to the Post. However, emails obtained by the Post show the office couldn't back that claim.
Regarding the claim, an email from one of Shinseki's advisers said, "This isn't going to work."
The letter from Congress was dated Sept. 26 and the storm was Oct. 28, the email pointed out. "Yet we talk about visits in December 2012 and again in January. Not clear why we didn't figure out in December that we lost the records and had to go back in January," the adviser wrote in an April 2013 email.
Jan Frye, VA deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and logistics, testified to Congress in May that he believes the prosthetics were bought with the purchase cards as a way for the hospital staff to avoid writing contracts for the prosthetics.
The prolific use of purchase cards to buy prosthetics isn't limited to the Bronx hospital, according to an internal VA memo written by Frye. During an 18-month span ending last year, Frye documented that $1.2 billion had been spent on VA purchase cards nationwide to buy prosthetics, the Post reported.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/veterans-affairs-ig-to-investigate-strange-prosthetic-purchases/article/2566383
