Ex-Veterans Affairs acquisition leader broke several ethics rules at 2023 conference, watchdog finds

The former chancellor of the Veterans Affairs Department’s Acquisition Academy knowingly accepted approximately $2,700 worth of impermissible gifts and wrongly directed staffers to solicit and accept sponsorships for conference social events, according to an Aug. 21 VA inspector general report. 

Judith Dawson committed several ethics violations in relation to an Acquisition Workforce Innovation Symposium that was held in August 2023, investigators determined. VA’s Academy offers training and professional development to the department’s acquisitions employees. 

Specifically, the IG found that Dawson and other VA employees received free food and drink as part of a conference center site visit that otherwise would have cost about $272 per person. It also uncovered that she accepted $2,436 in spa services and merchandise at no cost immediately before and during the symposium. 

Federal employees, for the most part, cannot accept gifts from organizations that are performing or seeking to do business with their agency. 

Investigators additionally said that Dawson failed to report the spa perks, despite a requirement that she disclose gifts that are more than $480 in annual public financial forms. 

The IG also faulted her for tasking an employee to find a sponsor, which ended up being a VA contractor, for two conference happy hours and using a personal connection to get five symposium exhibitors to charter buses for attendees to go to a professional baseball game. 

VA’s IG found that these sponsorships were impermissible because they “did not result in any clear benefit to veterans” in contravention of agency policy.  

According to the report, Dawson generally didn’t respond to or dismissed ethics concerns raised by her executive assistant. In one incident, after her assistant flagged potential issues, Dawson answered with a stick figure holding a stop sign above a caption that read “Water and juice will not exceed $20 bucks!!!” (Civil servants can, with exceptions, accept unsolicited gifts that are $20 or less.) 

“The executive assistant described being ‘scared’ to ask for guidance about a concern because ‘then you’ve got to go and say, ‘You know, hey, this can’t happen,’” according to the report. “She said, ‘it’s uncomfortable…and then you may be not on a good list for a while.’” 

Dawson retired from VA on Aug. 31, 2024. She did not respond to a request for comment sent on LinkedIn. 

The OIG recommended that the Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Construction consider whether additional ethics training or other measures are necessary. Officials concurred and directed specific responsive actions to be completed by Sept. 30, 2025. The VA’s Office of General Counsel also said that it would amend Dawson’s public financial disclosure report to include the spa gifts.