It is contemptible that Rubens and Graves are able to retain their employment and (implicitly) pension eligibility. Particularly galling about the matter is that if a member of the Armed Forces committed the same actions, he/she would undoubtedly be tried by court martial -- most likely at a general court martial -- and when found guilty, sentenced to reduction, jail time, forfeiture of pay, and discharge.
People entrusted with the responsibility of serving our Armed Forces veterans and who deliberately, consciously, and with greed of forethought manipulated "the system," have been held less accountable than those they purportedly serve. A horrendous error in judgment by someone in the VA, another in an all too long litany of examples of bad judgment.
Rubens and Graves were not low, or even mid level employees. They were members of the senior executive service. They obtained benefit by fraud, a felonious act. As senior employees, the responsibility for their actions must be at the highest levels. But such is apparently not the case in the VA (or the IRS for that matter).
Again, if an active duty member of our Armed Forces was caught "manipulating the system," actually defrauding the government, as were Rubens and Graves, a general court martial would doubtless find him/her guilty and hand down a sentence including reduction in rank, forfeiture of pay and allowances, confinement, and punitive discharge. But two senior executive service members were simply demoted and permitted to retain pension eligibility.
The judgment of someone in the VA who meted out the so called punishment is seriously flawed.
No comments:
Post a Comment