Posted on 06/17/2015 6:16:49 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The payments couldn’t help but catch the attention of the top procurement official at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Employees in the purchasing department of a VA hospital in the Bronx had used government purchase cards like credit cards at least 2,000 times to buy prosthetic legs and arms for veterans.
Each time they swiped the cards, it was for $24,999. That was precisely one dollar below VA’s charging limit for purchase cards.
When word reached Congress about the $54,435,743 worth of prosthetics bought under such odd circumstances over two years — the subject of an inspector general investigation announced Monday — lawmakers demanded details. But they were told there was no documentation.
VA officials had prepared to tell Congress that the records had been destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, according to previously undisclosed records, until a senior adviser in the Secretary’s office pointed out that the timing was wrong and the excuse wouldn’t hold up....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Wouldn't it be simple enough to contact all of the approved prosthetic suppliers and find out who placed the orders and when?
Yeah.
The good ol’ GOP will have things ship-shape in short order...
...once they get a majority in both houses of congress...
It never ends.
Amen.
You’d think there would be programs that scanned all purchases and flag suspicious buys - as in sorting all purchases by price, ignoring anything under $5,000 (until the current mess was cleaned up) and wondering so many $24,999s were showing up.
There’s a ton of criteria programmers could use - if there was a will to monitor payments.
The VA’s IG is investigating it vigorously, and will issue a full report in 24,999 years. Meantime, “it wouldn’t be fair to answer any questions on this matter and jeopardize an ongoing investigation.”
“..a senior adviser in [Secretary] Shinseki’s office was skeptical. “Gemma — this isn’t going to work,” the adviser wrote in an e-mail obtained by The Post.”
That sounds like it is much more than some guy in procurement skimming off the top. This was going on in the months/years prior to Sept. 2012. Hmm - what else of note happened in Sept. 2012.
The Benghazi attack. $54 million will buy a lot of arms for terrorists.
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