Congressmen Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-8) and Patrick Meehan (PA-7) today questioned a pattern of destroyed and concealed mail from veterans at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities across the nation. Meehan and Fitzpatrick released photos obtained from a whistleblower that purportedly show filing cabinets and boxes full of unanswered mail from veterans.In a letter to Undersecretary of Veterans Affairs for Benefits Allison Hickey, Meehan and Fitzpatrick wrote that reports of discarded or destroyed mail from veterans "suggest a pattern of misconduct that could well extend throughout the VA"
Reports indicate that mail from veterans to VA facilities may have been mishandled, ignored or destroyed in:
- Philadelphia, PA: Whistleblower testimony indicates that 96 boxes and 8 filing cabinets full of unanswered, ignored mail was brought to the attention of supervisors. The whistleblower testified that that mail “disappeared” after she alerted management and believed the mail was destroyed. Subsequent testimony by the Inspector General reports another 68 boxes full of mail from veterans were discovered during an unannounced inspection.
- Baltimore, MD: Just this week, an Inspector General report determined that 9,500 veterans’ documents and 80 claims folders were “inappropriately stockpiled”, which potentially affected the processing of claims.
- Oakland, CA: Rep. Doug LaMalfa (CA-1) has spoken on the House floor about reports he’s received from VA whistleblowers at the claims processing facility in Oakland. Whistleblowers told LaMalfa of thousands of claims requests and veterans’ documents “sitting on a cart or a janitor’s closet or in the hallway by the director’s office for years and even decades.”
In the letter, Fitzpatrick and Meehan accept the invitation by the Undersecretary to join her for an in-depth tour of and briefing by the Philadelphia Regional Office. Undersecretary Hickey invited the Congressmen during a House Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing on July 14.
The letter also requested answers to a number of follow-up questions in advance of his tour, including requests for information on internal controls on incoming mail from veterans and bonus payments made to the employees responsible.
Meehan and Fitzpatrick obtained the following photographs that show boxes and filing cabinets containing unanswered correspondence from veterans at the Philadelphia Regional Office:
The full text of the letter is attached and a PDF is available here.