Veterans Affairs whistleblowers may not be getting settlement benefits due to a lack of oversight, watchdog reports

Federal employees who report waste, fraud and abuse in their agencies may receive benefits like monetary payments, favorable personnel actions or backpay through settlements for their role as whistleblowers.

But at the Veterans Affairs Department, a Government Accountability Office report published Thursday found shortfalls in the monitoring of whistleblower cases, meaning that the whistleblowers may not actually receive their negotiated benefits. 

For one, VA’s Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection, which was established in 2017 to receive misconduct allegations against senior leaders and employee reports of whistleblower retaliation, doesn’t consistently track corrective actions that result from whistleblower investigations. 

“These gaps in the data leave OAWP with an incomplete picture of the actions VA takes to protect whistleblowers,” GAO investigators wrote. “In turn, it is possible that corrective actions that assist whistleblowers directly are implemented inconsistently, leading to a lack of accountability for the VA officials responsible for implementing the recommended actions.” 

GAO also flagged that OAWP doesn’t systematically collect information about certain benefits, backpay in particular, provided in whistleblower retaliation settlement agreements and that most of the agreements investigators reviewed (39 of 71) didn’t identify an official for the whistleblower to contact if they believed the VA breached the agreement. 

Even so, OAWP said that it doesn’t monitor the implementation of whistleblower retaliation settlement agreements because the VA secretary hasn’t authorized the office to do so. 

“Inconsistent tracking of settlement agreement data, such as back pay and other provisions and identification of the officials responsible for settlement agreement implementation, make it difficult for VA to ensure that all required corrective actions have been taken,” according to the report. “Therefore, VA may be unaware of potential breaches of its obligations.”

The issue is particularly sensitive because whistleblowers are sometimes retaliated against and experience professional and personal consequences. 

“I had spent $20,000 in legal fees and lost my home,” said one VA whistleblower in a survey by the GAO. 

“Even in a best case scenario...you will lose years of your career,” said another. 

Additionally, GAO found a discrepancy in data between OAWP and the Office of Special Counsel, an agency that also receives whistleblower complaints from federal employees. 

OSC reported that from fiscal 2019 through 2023, there were 90 whistleblower retaliation settlement agreements for VA cases that were originally filed with OSC. But OAWP said there were 30 such agreements, and both data sets include agreements that are not part of the other. 

“Without coordination between OAWP and OSC to ensure that VA whistleblower retaliation settlement agreements are accurately tracked, VA may continue to miss a significant proportion of the relevant data on the whistleblower retaliation cases that were settled,” investigators wrote. “Consequently, VA may face additional challenges monitoring these settlement agreements, as well as determining the financial costs to the department of payments resulting from these agreements.”

VA concurred with GAO recommendations that OAWP consistently track corrective actions for whistleblowers, that the office should have the authority to oversee enforcement of whistleblower retaliation settlement agreements and that it coordinate with OSC on accurately recording such agreements. The department plans on implementing all of them before the end of the calendar year.

GAO also recommended that OSC coordinate with OAWP, but that agency said tracking such agreements is solely VA’s responsibility.