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Enlarge this imageCharles Dharapak/APCharles Dharapak/APDan Martin is main of engineering expert services for that Section of Veterans Affairs’ Northern Indiana Health Care Method, but for more than a 12 months, he has not experienced much to try and do. He says he continues to be designated to work in a remote VA office environment without any get the job done a signments, at any time considering that he lifted the alarm on what he considered ended up fraudulently awarded contracts for brand new water filtration methods in nearby VA hospitals.Martin tells Right here & Now that the filtration technique was like “a several hundred pound paperweight” that didn’t abide by VA regulations to reduce the spread of waterborne diseases in the hospitals. He reported the trouble to the Busine s of the Inspector General, which he claims took his allegations seriously.Last calendar year, the Trump administration tried to solve this challenge by creating a new VA busine s office designed to shield whistleblowers from retaliation. The problem of whistleblower retaliation further shines a light on the growing dysfunction inside the VA, which still awaits a permanent chief after Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson withdrew his nomination this week. The VA’s Busine s office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection has taken on dozens of new cases of alleged whistleblower retaliation. The controversy over how the VA handles reports of wrongdoing from its own employees highlights the challenge of overhauling the troubled agency. Some employees who are flagging fraud, waste and abuse are skeptical that the new office will be able to protect them. National Veterans Affairs In Limbo After Jackson Withdraws As Nominee After Martin reported what he considered to be fraudulent contracts, the inspector general’s office environment cooperated with him, he suggests. Martin filed his complaint prior to the creation of the new whistleblower protection workplace.But then last Jordan Poole Jersey March, Martin says, his managers stripped him of his duties, accusing him of inappropriate behavior with employees. Martin, who is a veteran and has Tim Hardaway Jersey PTSD, says he believes he was targeted.”They spun it up that I’m just a crazy veteran, and I think the term gaslighting would be pretty fair,” he suggests.But the VA didn’t fire Martin. He suggests he was isolated in an office without heating or air conditioning, and he states he hasn’t received any responsibilities for over a calendar year.”I sit there all day. I do nothing. I get no job a signments,” he suggests. “Nobody talks to me. I’m isolated from everyone and everything.” A spokesperson with the VA told Right here & Now in a statement that it is currently investigating Martin’s case and would not comment on open investigations.”It should be noted that the Busine s office of Special Counsel and VA’s Busine s office of Accountability Review have previously investigated Martin’s claims of retaliation and found them to be unsubstantiated,” the VA spokesperson said in the statement. “Office of Special Counsel is investigating a subsequent claim that it experienced previously closed.”For years, the VA has long been plagued by allegations of whistleblower retaliation, which prompted President Trump to sign an executive order creating the whistleblower protection busine s office last April. Because June 14, 2017, the busine s office has received far more than 1,000 complaints about operations for the VA, according to a VA spokesperson, and as of March 26, the office was in the proce s of reviewing 148 open cases. Retaliation against whistleblowers has become documented at other federal agencies in the past, but Tom Devine, legal director of the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, who has worked on federal whistleblower cases for decades, says the difficulty at the VA is significantly worse than in the rest of the federal government.”The VA is by far the most repre sive federal agency in the government,” he suggests. “Depending on the 12 months, between a third and 40 percent of whistleblower retaliation complaints for that whole government comes from this one agency.”Devine suggests that Martin’s case is typical of the VA’s response to whistleblowers. The VA puts whistleblowers “in profe sional solitary confinement,” and they are often put under criminal investigation and referred for prosecution, he suggests. The VA’s “structure is very feudal, and there’s very little that the national office environment actually can do to crack down on problems and abuses of power in the neighborhood areas,” Devine claims. Shots – Overall health News Privacy Violations Rising At Veterans Affairs Medical Facilities Other VA whistleblowers say the whistleblower-protection place of work is dragging its feet on these cases amid staffing and other challenges. According to a VA spokesperson, the whistleblower protection place of work now employs 68 people with the goal of reaching a full staff of 98.Prominent whistleblower Katherine Mitchell, a physician who testified before Congre s about threats to patient care for the Phoenix VA, says she hasn’t seen any progre s on the case she filed with the office alleging she suffered retaliation.”As far as I can tell, they’re not doing anything substantially beneficial for anyone,” Mitchell told USA Today in January. “I’ve not heard anybody say that the busine s office of whistleblower protection has helped them at all.”Despite this criticism, Devine acknowledges that the new busine s has made a good-faith effort to try to help whistleblowers, but he states the national VA busine s just doesn’t have the power to effectively police the regional branches.”I think that the agency needs a structural overhaul, so that they have the capacity to impose accountability when the national leadership is acting as https://www.warriorsedges.com/Alec-Burks-Jersey public servants,” Devine states. “But until they get some enforcement teeth, all they’re going to be is background noise.” Radio producer Chris Bentley contributed to this report.