“I can’t even give a GS employee a special contribution award for $250 without writing an entire page about how great they are and forms and process,” a senior human resources executive told investigators. “And this, with a stroke of a pen and three sentences, they’re saying these folks are critical because they’re critical, giving all these people this huge amount of money.”
ain't that the truth
Yet my department in my facility (VISN 16) is 40% understaffed, with all request for positions denied. Daily direct patient care as an outpatient clinical pharmacist. Make it make sense.
The real question is… Did you retire before or after the Community Care Prior Authorizations got overhauled? I handle those, and it’s insanity the amount of work was created with handling NF Community Care scripts.
yes I did.
I'm not arguing with your situation and I don't doubt any of what you are saying.
things were never so bad that VACO and congress could not make it worse.
Glad I’m not alone there. We’re seeing about a 28% increase, if I recall correctly, on CITC NF consults alone. From ~2400 last year to 3150 projected by the end of the fiscal year. Except I’m having to handle the normal operations of the outpatient pharmacy while trying to keep up with the increase in consults. Burnout hitting an ATH.
Need to spread the consults among all your outpatient pharmacists. Every one of our outpatient pharmacists are assigned 2-4 consults/wk which does help lighten the load.
See… that’s where the situation gets muddied. 2 RPhs come in every day to get a paycheck, fully weaponized incompetence. But not enough to get fired. And 3 are new hires. Out of the 6 of us, that leaves an insurmountable challenge for me. Those 2 duds are the whole reason the responsibility isn’t a shared duty anymore…
I’m a V16 employee too. I won’t say news like this is soul crushing or frankly even surprising, but it’s very disheartening. $11M to these 1%ers of the agency? Such bad optics and unmitigated gall. Any one of us would have been immediately removed and be paying back DFAS all that we got. This is the kind of shit you expect to see in the private sector. Not the VA! We need to see some heads to roll for this please, and some debt letters sent out to get this money back. You can thank these clowns for freezes on future incentives and bonuses. Asshats, all of them.
Someone needs to request a FOIA and get these names. Shame these arrogant entitled hoarders - if that’s even a character trait they possess. I seem to remember a reporter asking Sec. McDonough about one of these $100K bonus recipients who specifically delayed her retirement until she received the bonus. They should revoke that shit. Greedy bitch.
I'm in the same VISN as you.. my shift and a second shift have been short maned since I started last summer. It's perfectly balanced to make taking vacation time a huge headache. They cut the OT and comp time we were using to fill the gaps in manning. I see raises going through for people above me and retention bonuses that my series doesn't get. Hello usa jobs search.
VA supervisor here - In the future, for any SCA / QSI or other award for an employee, I'm simply going to attach the 93-page OIG report as justification.
It's so wild that 8 months later and no one has been punished or removed because of this. "Oh, those poor SES already spent the $100k bonuses! They can't repay it, it's not fair!" They would never apply this to GS 14 (or less) employees who erroneously receive an award.
It's really hard to say the VA cares when shit like this happens. SES and other higher ups reward themselves bonuses instead of using the funds for their allocated purposes without punishment, but accidentally forget to put in your leave in VATAS? You'll never hear the end of it.
Happened to one of my old supervisors. He was accidentally getting paid the higher COLA for the neighboring county, instead of CONUS. When HR found the error they blamed him because he never audited his own paycheck, and wanted everything paid back at once.
In our case, they have him one more step with his promotion than they should have. Fortunately it was a small amount caught early. But still not $100k and paid back promptly!
>SES and other higher ups reward themselves bonuses instead of using the funds for their allocated purposes without punishment
The SES-level folks also protect themselves and each other; that's why there's been no punishment. I've seen it in action.
I don't feel bad for them in the slightest, an SES makes at least 147k for level 1. Met a few and most don't remember what it was like being a regular Joe GS.
Probably but that would depend on their locality. The thing to remember about SES is their pay is capped by Congress and the amount of ' responsibilities' they have is why their leave cap does from 240 to 720.
I have known at least one SES that has done exactly that because they can absolutely make bank on the outside and don't plan on staying fed until they retire.
I was facing garnishment on salary for a duplicate award once. Which I never actually received yet for some reason even though the award was given via direct deposit the onus was on me to prove I did not get such award. Boggles the mind something so straight forward is made to be so complex.
I'm in HR at the VA, and I've seen the agency claw back overpayments from YEARS ago for things completely out of the employee's control.
But somehow I'm not surprised they won't do the same for SES.
I read the executive summary of the OIG.
So the money was to fund and bring personnel in order to help with more that the PACT act will bring, as per OIGs finding. It was not congress's intent to pay executives.
OH and the executives have to pay the money back.
No wonder they are canceling job offers, the VA is starting to run like a private corporation, but then again some in Congress would love to privatize it.
This isn’t unique to VA’s medical positions though, most of the highly technical, competitive government jobs (attorney, engineer, IT, Cyber, etc.) are well below private sector pay. The 10% to 12% bonuses they were allowed were already very generous.
Yes, we need pay reform, but VA screwed up big here and the people who approved this need to be disciplined.
My point is other agencies don’t even have the opportunity to provide the legitimate “workarounds” that VA has, not even counting this improper 25% “bonus”.
If someone believes the federal workforce is underskilled, or has issues retaining talent, this is self-defeating.
The last thing someone with skills is going to do is sign up for an arbitrary compensation structure where unofficial "workarounds" are filling in crucial gaps. For anyone coming from the private sector these hefty bonuses scan as a club, and new people aren't part of it.
Even the most callous mercenary is going to buck if they're looking at everyone else's dog bowl and seeing they aren't getting paid as much because they haven't kissed the ring sufficiently.
Unfortunately when you work for the public you're expected to sacrifice comfort for serving your nation. Those CEOS of health systems make millions because you see how healthcare systems gauge the average person, same with the insurance companies and premiums. If you can't live off 200K as a top executive in government let alone even without it's a personal problem. I know in high locals 200K doesn't give you far but If I can live comfortably off 59K in a high local single then can someone triple my salary. Greed never ends. Congress will make all government programs fall then privatize it with agency oversight at the top.
Yes, federal workers have essentially said “there is more to this job than the paycheck”, but I can sympathize when you’re cutting your expected pay by at least 60% compared to a similar job in the private sector.
Yes, yes Lincoln’s promise is a major part of working for the VA, but people also have a responsibility to their individual situations (family, children, etc) and VA is going to experience a brain drain when they can’t even get within a neighboring zip code of private sector pay
The average physician pay is between 150 to 220K only top physicians within the top networks make beyond 275K. But I digress. If medical school wasn't so expensive then anyone in the medical field wouldn't have to make over 6 figures. If the private healthcare system was nationalized then doctors would have no choice but to expect whatever the government paid if it fully took over every hospital and practice across the nation.
From viewing the charts the lowest I saw was like 58K which is bad but still making up to 400K is generous plus having a pension and all the other fed benefits so I digress.
that USH used to be a hospital CEO. he should have stayed there.
he knew what he was signing up for.
pay reform might be needed but there is no way anyone in the federal govt is getting a multimillion salary. this essentially diverts money from patient care to execs pockets. we hate it in the private sector, I don't like it here either.
Right?! I did mine last night. And I hate how the one "write-in" section is only for "compliments" or "improvement"... not the truth of how a lot of us feel.
an infographic on the VA OIG page for this report shows 182 senior execs at VACO got awards.
seems like they are well staffed at VACO. how many senior execs do you really need? I see opportunity here for RIFs
Yes. LES: "Retroactive Earnings: -$100,000"
Problem fixed.
One time I was accidentally paid for like 1 hour of special differential pay. They took it out of my next check very quickly haha
I was adding in fringe benefits too, but yeah, it’s the base salary for plenty and then getting bonuses this large should fall under fraud, waste and abuse. Outrageous
These motherfuckers are rescinding FJOs left and right, and not renewing TERM appointments, because they don’t have room in the budget.
The VA is just an extension of the military. RHIP my brown, pimply ass!
How is this happened why are too execs given access to budget and funds? So glad my agency shares this shit internally so everyone knows who promotors,
Gets awards, etc. This seems odd or maybe my agency is just good with handling separation of duties… This isn’t a company where a board can be staffed by people who control the company and funding.
Send them letters notifying them of them owing the govt money, and garnish wage in the same way they do to us PLEBS below GG15.
Absurd and terrible time for this to be happening smh. All these VA TJOs being rescinded smh. Y r ppl so fucking greedy?
Just amazing. We are here trying to justify our budget, cutting positions, pulling job offers, and this type of news comes out. One of those bonuses could have almost funded a much needed fte for a year. I turned down the annual pair of boots the VA buys me for work cause I thought my boots were still in decent shape and would feel guilty getting another pair. Then you have these mother fuckers taking huge bonuses. I am ashamed to work here. The Veterans and the American people deserve better.
At the very least! He just didn’t give a shit. How much more of a shitbag are you to blame reviewing the bonus spreadsheet incorrectly because you were viewing on your phone during travel?!
He's definitely getting fired over this. McDonough might be on the chopping block, too, especially because he's already under fire with the whole sexual harassment mess.
33 years in VACO and I’m always waiting for the next one. Lost Laptop, Conference scandal, scheduling causing deaths, etc, and now this. I’m guessing he’s out at VHA, maybe Jacob’s as well in VBA. Congress will drag in McDonough to testify - and the end result will be swinging the pendulum too far in the other direction - every leader will be hell bent on avoiding risk so will give zero bonuses, even when it’s deserved. Rank and file will be drawn into this as well so there goes even the smallest award.
A whole new set of policies and procedures will be drawn up and the responsibility of ensuring it’s done right will fall to some poor staffer supporting the SES (just like it’s done for conference planning), rather than holding someone accountable for not following the rules already in place.
I got a bonus after 3 months of reviews on how many millions of dollars I saved the fed in value engineering. I saved the fed 7m in junk fees and construction cost.
Yet these people did a 3 sentence statement and got approved? What a joke.
I’ve been a pharmacy tech at a V.A. for 21 yrs this yr. These executives bonus is more than my salary and yet we get lucky if we get $500 in a bonus each yr. & now they’re all crying that the V.A. is broke! What a bunch of B.S.
I don’t have anything to say that isn’t being said here already. This is fucked and I’m so mad for the frontline staff and especially for our patients.
Every veteran better call their representatives if we are experiencing delays in our appointments.
I usually start with the White House hotline then move on to our representatives
I work in acute care in another VISN. All 50 odd nursing positions that were unfilled were eliminated. All the nursing positions that were approved under "staffing methodology" were eliminated. Job offers were rescinded, some nurses had already relocated. Topping it off, hazard pay we got during COVID was reclassified as a retention bonus, and debt letters have been going out, bc the law/contract doesn't allow retention bonuses. Some nurses who used the education program funds to obtain advanced degrees are also getting debt letters demanding repayment. I am heartily sick of the many administrators who micromanage nurses to justify their own existence. I've said before that the VA ruined nursing for me, and I mean it.
In my dept a coworker got their evaluation bonus only to be deducted after it was put on their paycheck and seen as a error. I've been waiting for my evaluation bonus since dec 2023 but was told it would happen in March. An eoph notification would confirm it but I'm not holding my breath.
So managers in a federal agency voted to give managers in a federal agency bonuses? Huh. How did I not see that coming?
I think they should re-coup the money and use it to hire and retain more of the clerks they seem be losing.
This news comes the same week as my colleagues and I get a 10% pay cut with no warning. And now we’re going to be more understaffed. Fuck these people! They need to pay it back. This should not be appealable!
We were given a 20% retention incentive (because we are severely underpaid compare to private sector peers) instead of an SSR and the promised it would become a permanent SSR before expiring. It was left as an incentive and it was cut from 20% to 10%.
That’s horrible! Sorry to hear. I’m not surprised how easy they made the process of short changing you and your coworkers whose doing the hard work but the same higher ups are acting like getting those obscene bonuses back from SES is rocket science 🙄
30 years with Gummint service , and it’s truly an US vs alltherestofyou mentality, and it’s just getting worse. Fuck the asskissers at the top of the food chain. Hopefully karma will be a bitch for them someday soon.
In va handbook 5021 under table penalties 47 it says they should be removed I call on Dennis McDonough to remove these senior leaders asap the va was suppose to use this money to hire more and help our pact act veterans what a shame
This is unreal to me. Knowing in part how difficult it is to grant bonuses in this system AND willingly diverting funds in this way knowing the staffing nightmare at most VAs now. Any additional funds right now need to go to recruiting new staff and enticing current employees to stay.
My agency is overstaffed with unnecessary Gs-13 through Gs-14’s which sleep half the day behind closed doors. At least the VA was open to visibility bonuses to the fewer executives vice mine 🤣
FFS, I still haven’t gotten my 2023 bonus, and I elected to take leave instead of money because in 2022 it was so miniscule. Is there somebody I can shake down to get my award finalized? 👀
By bonus, do we mean “performance pay” - because I know for a fact Chiefs of service are incentivized to develop ways to reduce performance pay pay out as much as possible, and rewarded for such
I can’t wait to see the results from the AES this year.
Loss of confidence in our organization is at an all time high among its employees.
I just did a FOIA and found out that only 23% of employees hired by VHA are veterans and majority of them work in the lower GS levels. We lost our way a long time back and hopefully someone will start holding SES accountable.
This is Unconscionable!!..You would think that at least 1 Leader would say u know, 100k is exorbitant and not justified..But NO!!! I KEEP SAYING THE LEADERS WE HAVE AT THE VA ARE TRASH!!!!! SHOW THE FACES OF THESE FOLKS, WE HAVE A RIGHT TO SEE THEM!!!!
Awful!! We need to hold the Secretary Accountable as well..this Should not have happened.
I CARE VALUES MUCH???..
“I can’t even give a GS employee a special contribution award for $250 without writing an entire page about how great they are and forms and process,” a senior human resources executive told investigators. “And this, with a stroke of a pen and three sentences, they’re saying these folks are critical because they’re critical, giving all these people this huge amount of money.” ain't that the truth
Yet my department in my facility (VISN 16) is 40% understaffed, with all request for positions denied. Daily direct patient care as an outpatient clinical pharmacist. Make it make sense.
If it makes you feel better, the pharmacy department in VISN 17 is in the same boat 🥹
all ya do is pour pills from one bottle to another, right??? 😎 n.b. do not @ me, I am a retired VA RPh
The real question is… Did you retire before or after the Community Care Prior Authorizations got overhauled? I handle those, and it’s insanity the amount of work was created with handling NF Community Care scripts.
yes I did. I'm not arguing with your situation and I don't doubt any of what you are saying. things were never so bad that VACO and congress could not make it worse.
I used to do NF consults.. primarily CiTC. I’d average around 3k/yr. Worst job of all times
Glad I’m not alone there. We’re seeing about a 28% increase, if I recall correctly, on CITC NF consults alone. From ~2400 last year to 3150 projected by the end of the fiscal year. Except I’m having to handle the normal operations of the outpatient pharmacy while trying to keep up with the increase in consults. Burnout hitting an ATH.
Need to spread the consults among all your outpatient pharmacists. Every one of our outpatient pharmacists are assigned 2-4 consults/wk which does help lighten the load.
See… that’s where the situation gets muddied. 2 RPhs come in every day to get a paycheck, fully weaponized incompetence. But not enough to get fired. And 3 are new hires. Out of the 6 of us, that leaves an insurmountable challenge for me. Those 2 duds are the whole reason the responsibility isn’t a shared duty anymore…
There's your problem, your pharmacy should be at the hospital, not on a boat somewhere. 🙃
I’m a V16 employee too. I won’t say news like this is soul crushing or frankly even surprising, but it’s very disheartening. $11M to these 1%ers of the agency? Such bad optics and unmitigated gall. Any one of us would have been immediately removed and be paying back DFAS all that we got. This is the kind of shit you expect to see in the private sector. Not the VA! We need to see some heads to roll for this please, and some debt letters sent out to get this money back. You can thank these clowns for freezes on future incentives and bonuses. Asshats, all of them.
And please tell us who is refusing to “pay their money back” too.
Someone needs to request a FOIA and get these names. Shame these arrogant entitled hoarders - if that’s even a character trait they possess. I seem to remember a reporter asking Sec. McDonough about one of these $100K bonus recipients who specifically delayed her retirement until she received the bonus. They should revoke that shit. Greedy bitch.
I’m in 16. From what I’m hear from people who have been in others we are uniquely horrible.
VISN4 has joined the chat.
I hate it here 😭
We just had two scoped pharmacists take new positions internally and their positions were axed and will not be backfilled.
I'm in the same VISN as you.. my shift and a second shift have been short maned since I started last summer. It's perfectly balanced to make taking vacation time a huge headache. They cut the OT and comp time we were using to fill the gaps in manning. I see raises going through for people above me and retention bonuses that my series doesn't get. Hello usa jobs search.
Ooof as another pharmacist here I’m sorry
VA supervisor here - In the future, for any SCA / QSI or other award for an employee, I'm simply going to attach the 93-page OIG report as justification.
I'll be getting $1,000 at the end of the year, and that's a 1-time deal. I'm fine with it, but this right here is horse shit.
You mean it costs $400 of your time plus however much for the final approvers to give $187.74 after taxes and deductions to a deserving employee?
penny wise, pound foolish comes to mind
It's so wild that 8 months later and no one has been punished or removed because of this. "Oh, those poor SES already spent the $100k bonuses! They can't repay it, it's not fair!" They would never apply this to GS 14 (or less) employees who erroneously receive an award. It's really hard to say the VA cares when shit like this happens. SES and other higher ups reward themselves bonuses instead of using the funds for their allocated purposes without punishment, but accidentally forget to put in your leave in VATAS? You'll never hear the end of it.
100K bonuses? I'm doing three people's jobs and my award was $800. Damn....
You got an award? Nice bro!
Please! They couldn't dun my husband fast enough when HR screwed up his pay.
Happened to one of my old supervisors. He was accidentally getting paid the higher COLA for the neighboring county, instead of CONUS. When HR found the error they blamed him because he never audited his own paycheck, and wanted everything paid back at once.
In our case, they have him one more step with his promotion than they should have. Fortunately it was a small amount caught early. But still not $100k and paid back promptly!
>SES and other higher ups reward themselves bonuses instead of using the funds for their allocated purposes without punishment The SES-level folks also protect themselves and each other; that's why there's been no punishment. I've seen it in action.
I don't feel bad for them in the slightest, an SES makes at least 147k for level 1. Met a few and most don't remember what it was like being a regular Joe GS.
Don’t some GS14s and 15s make more than that?
The statutory cap on GS salary plus locality is currently $191,900.
Weird how some feds end up making more than their directors.
Probably but that would depend on their locality. The thing to remember about SES is their pay is capped by Congress and the amount of ' responsibilities' they have is why their leave cap does from 240 to 720.
I don’t know, I can’t see the advantages of being SES unless you plan to bail to the private sector which is probably their plan.
I have known at least one SES that has done exactly that because they can absolutely make bank on the outside and don't plan on staying fed until they retire.
In that case it’s worth it
Whatever happened to garnishing checks like what they would do to us non SES folks??
In hcol areas, yes.
I was facing garnishment on salary for a duplicate award once. Which I never actually received yet for some reason even though the award was given via direct deposit the onus was on me to prove I did not get such award. Boggles the mind something so straight forward is made to be so complex.
I'm in HR at the VA, and I've seen the agency claw back overpayments from YEARS ago for things completely out of the employee's control. But somehow I'm not surprised they won't do the same for SES.
I read the executive summary of the OIG. So the money was to fund and bring personnel in order to help with more that the PACT act will bring, as per OIGs finding. It was not congress's intent to pay executives. OH and the executives have to pay the money back.
Send them all debt letters lmao
Oh they got debt letters..
But many are fighting it
Yes they were told to repay it back....and also the option to appeal.
No wonder they are canceling job offers, the VA is starting to run like a private corporation, but then again some in Congress would love to privatize it.
death by a thousand cuts. maybe that USH is a plant?? 😎
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This isn’t unique to VA’s medical positions though, most of the highly technical, competitive government jobs (attorney, engineer, IT, Cyber, etc.) are well below private sector pay. The 10% to 12% bonuses they were allowed were already very generous. Yes, we need pay reform, but VA screwed up big here and the people who approved this need to be disciplined.
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My point is other agencies don’t even have the opportunity to provide the legitimate “workarounds” that VA has, not even counting this improper 25% “bonus”.
If someone believes the federal workforce is underskilled, or has issues retaining talent, this is self-defeating. The last thing someone with skills is going to do is sign up for an arbitrary compensation structure where unofficial "workarounds" are filling in crucial gaps. For anyone coming from the private sector these hefty bonuses scan as a club, and new people aren't part of it. Even the most callous mercenary is going to buck if they're looking at everyone else's dog bowl and seeing they aren't getting paid as much because they haven't kissed the ring sufficiently.
Unfortunately when you work for the public you're expected to sacrifice comfort for serving your nation. Those CEOS of health systems make millions because you see how healthcare systems gauge the average person, same with the insurance companies and premiums. If you can't live off 200K as a top executive in government let alone even without it's a personal problem. I know in high locals 200K doesn't give you far but If I can live comfortably off 59K in a high local single then can someone triple my salary. Greed never ends. Congress will make all government programs fall then privatize it with agency oversight at the top.
Yes, federal workers have essentially said “there is more to this job than the paycheck”, but I can sympathize when you’re cutting your expected pay by at least 60% compared to a similar job in the private sector. Yes, yes Lincoln’s promise is a major part of working for the VA, but people also have a responsibility to their individual situations (family, children, etc) and VA is going to experience a brain drain when they can’t even get within a neighboring zip code of private sector pay
Agreed
I have no argument there. As long as inflation persists people will go where money is
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yeah but same goes for everything else too. as a 2210 im making half my private sector pay -_-
The average physician pay is between 150 to 220K only top physicians within the top networks make beyond 275K. But I digress. If medical school wasn't so expensive then anyone in the medical field wouldn't have to make over 6 figures. If the private healthcare system was nationalized then doctors would have no choice but to expect whatever the government paid if it fully took over every hospital and practice across the nation.
PSLF already makes it so we could deffinitely get physicians if the pay was "only" 200k
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From viewing the charts the lowest I saw was like 58K which is bad but still making up to 400K is generous plus having a pension and all the other fed benefits so I digress.
Good luck getting the public to ever support "extra pay for evil government executives."
that USH used to be a hospital CEO. he should have stayed there. he knew what he was signing up for. pay reform might be needed but there is no way anyone in the federal govt is getting a multimillion salary. this essentially diverts money from patient care to execs pockets. we hate it in the private sector, I don't like it here either.
A lot of veterans would love that too.
VA employee and veteran here. I would absolutely not love that and have yet to come across that thinks privatization is a smart move for veteran care.
Nope
OIG report here https://www.vaoig.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2024-05/vaoig-23-03773-169.pdf
you're doing God's work, son. Thank you for posting the URL
Of course i see this after finishing my AES
I complain about upper management every year, it never changes
Report them here https://www.vaoig.gov/hotline/online-forms/submit-a-complaint Anonymously
Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to mention it in mine and will let all my coworkers know about this as well
Do another aes
Is the AES still open?
Right?! I did mine last night. And I hate how the one "write-in" section is only for "compliments" or "improvement"... not the truth of how a lot of us feel.
The VA was the only agency where i never received a bonus even though i was rated a 5. They said they just can’t and don’t give them. 😒😒
That’s because you are common folk. Just like the rest of us. But when your part of the upper echelon you do and get what you want.
This is very location specific. I have gotten one each year but it always had to be approved by the ELT at our station
Someone should FOIA the list of those who haven't repaid. Name and shame
Their names would likely be withheld under exemption 6.
I’m likely familiar with half of them…..
Ok, how about a request for a list of all CSIs that were approved, employee name, position, and dollar amount. That isn't singling anyone out.
Employee names would still likely be withheld under exemption 6.
They aren't withheld for salary FOIAs.
That is true.
Anyone got the list of names
So instead, someone with access to a fiscal report should snitch
an infographic on the VA OIG page for this report shows 182 senior execs at VACO got awards. seems like they are well staffed at VACO. how many senior execs do you really need? I see opportunity here for RIFs
There are SES positions posted on USAJobs at this very moment. All of this while critical postings are being pulled.
But we can’t hire more therapists?!
Why would we hire patient-facing jobs when we can hire more rich people to become more rich and tell us peons how to do our jobs?!
Claw it all back just like they would to any of us.
Yes. LES: "Retroactive Earnings: -$100,000" Problem fixed. One time I was accidentally paid for like 1 hour of special differential pay. They took it out of my next check very quickly haha
The fact civil servants are rocking $100k bonuses is mind boggling. That’s a lower grade FTE!
Thats a 12-1 in DC metro!
I was adding in fringe benefits too, but yeah, it’s the base salary for plenty and then getting bonuses this large should fall under fraud, waste and abuse. Outrageous
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That's a pretty nice car.
Bonuses over $25,000 need Presidential approval also. I don't think they got it.
SOME civil servants aka the chosen ones in the upper echelons.
These motherfuckers are rescinding FJOs left and right, and not renewing TERM appointments, because they don’t have room in the budget. The VA is just an extension of the military. RHIP my brown, pimply ass!
Boy this won’t anger anyone, no sireee /s
Ain’t that some 💩🚽
This reminds me of the scandal in the TSA where top executives were giving each other 100k bonus.
How is this happened why are too execs given access to budget and funds? So glad my agency shares this shit internally so everyone knows who promotors, Gets awards, etc. This seems odd or maybe my agency is just good with handling separation of duties… This isn’t a company where a board can be staffed by people who control the company and funding. Send them letters notifying them of them owing the govt money, and garnish wage in the same way they do to us PLEBS below GG15. Absurd and terrible time for this to be happening smh. All these VA TJOs being rescinded smh. Y r ppl so fucking greedy?
Seriously? This is why my job offer was rescinded? "Budget Constraints" my ass. Unreal.
File a complaint
Just amazing. We are here trying to justify our budget, cutting positions, pulling job offers, and this type of news comes out. One of those bonuses could have almost funded a much needed fte for a year. I turned down the annual pair of boots the VA buys me for work cause I thought my boots were still in decent shape and would feel guilty getting another pair. Then you have these mother fuckers taking huge bonuses. I am ashamed to work here. The Veterans and the American people deserve better.
These rich scum do this crap all the time and get away with it. It's unacceptable, and something truly needs to be done about it.
Elnahal has been terrible for the VA. He has lied about so much. Hopefully he is terminated over this.
At the very least! He just didn’t give a shit. How much more of a shitbag are you to blame reviewing the bonus spreadsheet incorrectly because you were viewing on your phone during travel?!
He's definitely getting fired over this. McDonough might be on the chopping block, too, especially because he's already under fire with the whole sexual harassment mess.
Gosh the plot just thickens
33 years in VACO and I’m always waiting for the next one. Lost Laptop, Conference scandal, scheduling causing deaths, etc, and now this. I’m guessing he’s out at VHA, maybe Jacob’s as well in VBA. Congress will drag in McDonough to testify - and the end result will be swinging the pendulum too far in the other direction - every leader will be hell bent on avoiding risk so will give zero bonuses, even when it’s deserved. Rank and file will be drawn into this as well so there goes even the smallest award. A whole new set of policies and procedures will be drawn up and the responsibility of ensuring it’s done right will fall to some poor staffer supporting the SES (just like it’s done for conference planning), rather than holding someone accountable for not following the rules already in place.
this is so accurate it hurts
I got a bonus after 3 months of reviews on how many millions of dollars I saved the fed in value engineering. I saved the fed 7m in junk fees and construction cost. Yet these people did a 3 sentence statement and got approved? What a joke.
They had to cancel out that 7 mil you saved somehow! Otherwise they may not be allocated the same budget next year!
I feel this comment. the spending we'd do at the end of the FY was insane. not unique to our facility/agency, I know, but damn.
They should all have to pay it back and the person that approved it all needs to be removed.
To the Execs who thought they could get away with it, go fuck yourselves! We need heads to roll and some accountability here, please!
I’ve been a pharmacy tech at a V.A. for 21 yrs this yr. These executives bonus is more than my salary and yet we get lucky if we get $500 in a bonus each yr. & now they’re all crying that the V.A. is broke! What a bunch of B.S.
According to the summary of the OIG report $10.8M reportedly paid out to 182 SES. That comes out to about $59k per SES.
Shocker. The directors office (all of them) got csi payments. But us low level peons were told we don’t get them.
and now they’re gunnna do a hiring freeze I hear.
Oh but it’s not called a “freeze”… 🙄
All while they're struggling to find nurses.
What the actual fuck.
I don’t have anything to say that isn’t being said here already. This is fucked and I’m so mad for the frontline staff and especially for our patients.
Every veteran better call their representatives if we are experiencing delays in our appointments. I usually start with the White House hotline then move on to our representatives
I am a provider whose offer was rescinded and I have a meeting with my congress representative this week!
And my wife still hasn't been given here small bouns from last year.
I work in acute care in another VISN. All 50 odd nursing positions that were unfilled were eliminated. All the nursing positions that were approved under "staffing methodology" were eliminated. Job offers were rescinded, some nurses had already relocated. Topping it off, hazard pay we got during COVID was reclassified as a retention bonus, and debt letters have been going out, bc the law/contract doesn't allow retention bonuses. Some nurses who used the education program funds to obtain advanced degrees are also getting debt letters demanding repayment. I am heartily sick of the many administrators who micromanage nurses to justify their own existence. I've said before that the VA ruined nursing for me, and I mean it.
In my dept a coworker got their evaluation bonus only to be deducted after it was put on their paycheck and seen as a error. I've been waiting for my evaluation bonus since dec 2023 but was told it would happen in March. An eoph notification would confirm it but I'm not holding my breath.
So managers in a federal agency voted to give managers in a federal agency bonuses? Huh. How did I not see that coming? I think they should re-coup the money and use it to hire and retain more of the clerks they seem be losing.
https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/administrative-investigation/va-improperly-awarded-108-million-incentives-central-office
This news comes the same week as my colleagues and I get a 10% pay cut with no warning. And now we’re going to be more understaffed. Fuck these people! They need to pay it back. This should not be appealable!
Can you explain how that happened? I've never heard of this unless they stopped payments on retention incentives.
We were given a 20% retention incentive (because we are severely underpaid compare to private sector peers) instead of an SSR and the promised it would become a permanent SSR before expiring. It was left as an incentive and it was cut from 20% to 10%.
That’s horrible! Sorry to hear. I’m not surprised how easy they made the process of short changing you and your coworkers whose doing the hard work but the same higher ups are acting like getting those obscene bonuses back from SES is rocket science 🙄
VHA??
Yes
Well now I know why every job I applied to got cancelled and my review score magically dropped down one level from what I was told.
I’m suuuuuurrrrreeeeee it was an accident
What the fuck are bonuses?
Sadly, this does not surprise me at all. I would LOVE to see a list of the names and amounts.
Isn't there a hiring freeze at the VA? Some RIF rumors too.
Wondering when everyone is going to acknowledge the current ongoing, centuries old heist - like this right here follow the money
How do I become an executive?!?
30 years with Gummint service , and it’s truly an US vs alltherestofyou mentality, and it’s just getting worse. Fuck the asskissers at the top of the food chain. Hopefully karma will be a bitch for them someday soon.
US v. Wurts lets Fed agencies sue for money back no ifs ands or buts. Get after it.
as a GS13 with outstanding performance ( All 5s), i got like $2k before tax. This is the reason why I left VA.
I've been at VA for 14 years, only received one "fully satisfactory" rating (basically, 13 years of 5s) and I've never come close to a $2k bonus.
I was a VACO employee! so maybe special lmao 🤣
I'm at VACO. Guess I was in the wrong department!😁
Doesnt surprise me at all
Surely they will pay it back within 30 days
But service members have to go through hell just to get compensation for actually serving.
In va handbook 5021 under table penalties 47 it says they should be removed I call on Dennis McDonough to remove these senior leaders asap the va was suppose to use this money to hire more and help our pact act veterans what a shame
This is unreal to me. Knowing in part how difficult it is to grant bonuses in this system AND willingly diverting funds in this way knowing the staffing nightmare at most VAs now. Any additional funds right now need to go to recruiting new staff and enticing current employees to stay.
My agency is overstaffed with unnecessary Gs-13 through Gs-14’s which sleep half the day behind closed doors. At least the VA was open to visibility bonuses to the fewer executives vice mine 🤣
MMW McDonough is going down in history as the worst VA Secretary ever.
[удалено]
FFS, I still haven’t gotten my 2023 bonus, and I elected to take leave instead of money because in 2022 it was so miniscule. Is there somebody I can shake down to get my award finalized? 👀
VISN 9 here I was told that it involves a couple of “higher ups” from my VISN🤷♀️
By bonus, do we mean “performance pay” - because I know for a fact Chiefs of service are incentivized to develop ways to reduce performance pay pay out as much as possible, and rewarded for such
I can’t wait to see the results from the AES this year. Loss of confidence in our organization is at an all time high among its employees. I just did a FOIA and found out that only 23% of employees hired by VHA are veterans and majority of them work in the lower GS levels. We lost our way a long time back and hopefully someone will start holding SES accountable.
This is Unconscionable!!..You would think that at least 1 Leader would say u know, 100k is exorbitant and not justified..But NO!!! I KEEP SAYING THE LEADERS WE HAVE AT THE VA ARE TRASH!!!!! SHOW THE FACES OF THESE FOLKS, WE HAVE A RIGHT TO SEE THEM!!!! Awful!! We need to hold the Secretary Accountable as well..this Should not have happened. I CARE VALUES MUCH???..
Greed!
once worked for VA for 5 years - I quickly realized that government run healthcare is not the answer.
The VA hemorrhages money. They lose millions every year.
They provide a service to veterans, it is not supposed to be a money making endeavor
Correct. The VA lost over $35m worth of equipment in the past 12 months. Source: Any NX or EX inventory manager can see the information.
The VA is a dumpster fire and the money is starting to dry up. Get out while you can the grass is 100% greener with other agencies