Saturday, April 25, 2015

Answers demanded after vets’ disability claims found in cabinet


Rustyann Brown reacts to Seth Singletary as he draws her tattoo showing the number of compensation claims she found in a cabinet when she worked at the VA at Sacred Tattoo March 31, 2015 in Oakland, Calif. Brown became a whistleblower last year while working for the Oakland VA after she discovered over 13,000 compensation and disability claims stashed away in a filing cabinet dating back to the early 90s. Since she reported the VA, she says not much has changed within the office. Brown left the VA not long after coming forward with the news and has since been plagued with guilt and concern over the claims. Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle
One number will hang over a congressional hearing Wednesday looking into mismanagement at a U.S. Veterans Affairs regional office in Oakland: 13,184.
That’s the number of compensation and disability claims that were found in 2012, wrongfully stashed in a filing cabinet — some dating to the mid-1990s and many unprocessed. But what the number represents remains the source of fierce debate.
Employees who came forward about the claims say it’s the number of veterans whose much-needed benefits may have been delayed, or not paid altogether, because of what they described as organized negligence that continued even after the cabinet was emptied. …
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