"WASHINGTON – Kimberly Graves, the top St. Paul Department of Veterans Affairs official who recently refused to answer questions in front of a congressional panel, received an $8,697 bonus in 2014 — the same year she was under federal investigation for allegedly abusing her authority for personal gain.
Graves’ bonus came after she received almost $130,000 in moving expenses to relocate from the East Coast to St. Paul last year — a move she orchestrated, according to a VA inspector general’s report.. The report found that Graves also retained her $173,949 annual salary even though her job responsibilities were significantly diminished in the move to Minnesota.
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Graves wasn’t the only controversial Minnesota veterans official to receive a 2014 bonus. The VA also gave St. Cloud chief of staff Susan Markstrom a $3,900 bonus. An internal investigation released in 2014 concluded that Markstrom’s mismanagement led to mass resignations of doctors and other health care providers at the facility.
She was among the 1,047 St. Cloud VA employees who received incentives of various types, totaling $816,161. That amount is far less than 1 percent of the total St. Cloud VA budget of $251 million last year. Bonuses ranged from $100 to a maximum of $5,000, and the average award was $779.52.
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Members of the VA committee subpoenaed Graves and some of her contemporaries to testify in October about the Inspector General report. Graves invoked her Fifth Amendment right, which protects a person from making any self-incriminating statements."
http://www.startribune.com/st-paul-va-official-received-an-8-697-bonus-in-year-she-was-under-investigation/347315962/
