Investigative Group

Thousands Of VA Medical Professionals Didn’t Pass Background Checks

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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) didn’t conduct required background checks on 6,200 medical employees, according to a government watchdog.

Most VA medical professionals must receive low-level background checks, but the IG found that there were no investigations for about six percent of cases, according to Monday’s VA inspector general (IG) report. In some cases, employees had worked at the VA for several years without having undergone an investigation.

Another 10,400 employees with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), an agency within the VA, didn’t receive background checks within the required 90 days between 2012 and 2016, according to the report.

The VA exposed “veterans and employees to individuals who have not been properly vetted,” the IG wrote. The “VA and the public lack assurance that VHA has a properly investigated workforce appropriate for providing health care to our nation’s veterans.”

The VA has had a history of employing criminals. The agency, for example, held a job for an accountant while he served a prison sentence for killing a man and hired a convicted child molester, The Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.

Additionally, a previous VA IG resigned after getting caught masturbating in the office’s all-glass conference room in full-view of school teachers attending an education conference across the street, TheDCNF’s Luke Rosiak reported.

VA Secretary David Shulkin – who’s been the subject of recent IG investigations – headed the VHA during the period the audit covered. The IG also reported that Shulkin used taxpayer dollars to fund a trip for him and his wife in February.

The secretary is facing rumors that he’ll be the next cabinet secretary President Donald Trump fires.

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