Two whistleblowers from the Department of Veterans Affairs told the Washington Examiner that while the VA claims to want to hear complaints from its employees, it does everything it can to fight back and defend itself.
“They circle the wagons,” said Shea Wilkes, a VA employee in Louisiana. “I mean, they circle the wagons hard.”
Brandon Coleman, an employee in Arizona who was placed on leave for bringing attention to the VA’s failure to properly treat suicidal veterans, said he has been escorted into the VA by police. He said that move is meant to intimidate other potential whistleblowers.
“You take him out of his position, and you place him on paid administrative leave, and then you walk him through the hospital with a police attendant escorting him on his way to a fact-finding, it scares people to death,” he said. “They’re not going to talk.”
VA Secretary Robert McDonald, former head of Procter & Gamble, has tried to rebrand the VA as an organization that cares deeply about veterans. To that end, he’s repeated his new slogan, “I CARE,” and is often seen wearing a pin that says “I CARE.”
But Coleman said that sentiment only goes so deep.
“It’s a pin that goes on his lapel,” Coleman said. “He cares, but, you know, a lot of this, he’s allowed to happen on his watch.”
