US Rep Mike Coffman Critical of VA Management

The Honorable Mike Coffman is the US House Representative from the 6^th Congressional District in Colorado. Representative Coffman is a veteran and has long been involved in veteran’s affairs. In a recent email notification to his constituents he blasted the VA for cost overruns and delays on the Aurora Colorado Veterans Hospital Project. He cited a recent VA Inspector General report reporting gross management failures.

You may read Representative Coffman’s comments at:

https://iqconnect.lmhostediq.com/iqextranet/view_newsletter.aspx?id=102523&c=CO06MC

You may read the full IG Report at:

http://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-15-03706-330.pdf

I have long been calling for effective IG auditing:

http://tek-dev.typepad.com/technology-development/2012/12/technology-transfer-and-the-need-for-good-government.html

http://tek-dev.typepad.com/technology-development/2013/05/like-i-said-we-need-strong-inspectors-general.html .

We often see the IG doing its job, finding the specific management failures at the federal level. Nevertheless, there never seems to be effective corrective action. In this case, Representative Coffman is calling for a criminal investigation with a belief that one or more criminal referrals would result. This would have to come from the Justice Department and that rarely seems to happen when the defendant is a government employee.

Is it possible that our “justice system” is fundamentally inept or even corrupt? Are government employees exempt from all prosecution? Are those in the lawmaking process somehow outside or beyond the law? I believe these kinds of thoughts trouble us more than we would like to admit. If we come to believe that our “justice system” is corrupt or if we ever quit asking that question in earnest, we are finished as a society.