Watchdog groups are demanding further investigation into a now-former Veterans Affairs official found to have potentially violated ethics rules.
According to an excerpt from a report by the Inspector General:
[There were] potential ethical violations by the former executive director of VBA’s Education Service, Charmain Bogue, arising from her spouse’s consulting work with Veterans Education Success (VES), a nonprofit advocacy organization for veterans’ education that regularly had business before the Education Service. The allegations also pointed to possible incomplete financial disclosures concerning the business owned by Ms. Bogue’s spouse. In the course of the OIG’s administrative investigation into these matters, investigators uncovered evidence of other potential conflicts of interest and related misconduct by Ms. Bogue. She resigned from VA in January 2022.
Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General
Read the Inspector General report on the ethics violation here.
The following information is from Empower Oversight.
| Empower Oversight and Whistleblowers of America are seeking an investigation into a report recently released by the Inspector General's Office entitled: Former Education Service Executive Violated Ethics Rules and Her Duty to Cooperate Fully with the OIG. The watchdog organizations have sent letters to Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough, VA Inspector General Michael Missal, and the nonprofit Veterans Education Success (VES) demanding action on the report's findings. The letters were sent prior to the testimony given by co-signer and Whistleblowers of America President Jacqueline Garrick at the hearing before the House Veterans Affairs Committee on possible reforms to whistleblower protections at the VA. According to the VA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), three key witnesses in its review of whistleblower reports of conflicts of interest at the VA refused to answer all its questions. The senior VA official at the center of the probe, Charmain Bogue, resigned from the agency before the OIG’s work was complete, which shielded her from further questioning since the OIG could not compel testimony from former employees at the time. Ms. Bogue’s husband, VES senior communications advisor Barrett Bogue, and VES President Carrie Wofford also refused to testify in the inquiry, according to the OIG. In their letter to the VA and VA-OIG, Empower Oversight and Whistleblowers of America suggested steps that the VA and the OIG could take “to encourage accountability and enhance future cooperation with inspector general investigations,” including: (1) reviewing the VA’s contracts and agreements to ensure no one can benefit from any such agreement following a finding of an ethical violation or refusal to cooperate with the OIG’s oversight work (2) considering using the VA-OIG’s new authorities to compel testimony recently granted by Congress to re-examine the questions it could not answer in its initial report In their letter to the VES Board of Directors and key donors, Empower Oversight and Whistleblowers of America recognized “that the purpose of your support of VES’s mission is to help veterans, service members, and military families meet their educational goals,” but also asked that as “directors responsible for overseeing VES and financial supporters of its mission” they take steps to ensure VES “fully cooperates with the OIG’s nonpartisan, independent oversight efforts” and “refrains from participating in contracting relationships, grants, and agency agreements in ways that create the appearance of conflicts of interest like those outlined in the OIG report.” When the OIG report was initially released, Empower Oversight President & Founder Jason Foster issued a statement criticizing the slow pace of accountability for these issues. In September 2021, Empower Oversight issued a 19-page research paper entitled, “Did the Department of Veterans Affairs Enable Insider Trading?” exploring allegations about the leaking of non-public information about a market-moving enforcement announcement involving GI Bill benefits. In November 2021, Empower Oversight released a copy of the VA’s draft reply, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), to Senator Chuck Grassley’s April 2021 letter asking about these issues. The FOIA copy showed that the agency had gathered the answers to the Senator's questions, but it withheld those answers from the Senate, never transmitted the letter, and redacted those answers on the copy provided through FOIA. Empower Oversight has appealed the VA’s redactions of those answers and other information that do not appear to be exempt from disclosure under FOIA. Those appeals are still pending, and Empower Oversight has since sued the VA in federal court seeking to have the redactions lifted and require the Department to comply with its FOIA obligations. |
The VA has been taken over by blacks and they mistreat our veterans. They help other blacks to get 100% disability ratings even though many have no actual disabilities. Their hiring practices exclude interviews for whites and almost all HR across the government are being filled with blacks to further help exclude whites. You’d have to be blind not to see this happening. It actually needs investigation.
I agree 100%. The racism practiced in VA facilities is very obvious and gets worse with every visit.
The federal government is a criminal enterprise. Every department, every sub department, every NGO, every contractor, every agency and agent of the government needs to be held to account and their functions eliminated. Sharyl's case is a perfect example and look at what has happened with that. Delayed, perverted, obfuscated, denied and ignored but allowed to flourish and somehow rewarded with more power rather than facing consequences. I'd rather have the Mafia running things. At least they'd look me in the eye when they hold a gun to my head or break a few bones while they steal from me.
Sharply,
Thank you for the candid reporting and shining a light on one of the many issues at the VA.
Reading this article caused me to reflect upon my first dealings with the VA 6 years back. I found that there seemed to be an overabundance of ancillary (administrative & technicians) personnel whom I can only describe as " Angry Black Women ".......angry attitude not so prevalent in the black male employees in my VA.