The ongoing battle between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Merit Systems Protection Board on punishing senior executives took another twist on Feb. 17.
Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson released a statement on the recent MSPB ruling overturning the firing of Stratton VA Medical director Linda Weiss, saying that the decision was not only incorrect, but was filed outside of a 21-day window required for appeals, making the firing valid.
MSPB released the full ruling on the Weiss decision on Feb. 16, which overturned a previous termination of the Albany, N.Y., VA hospital director after the agency said she failed to provide adequate medical care to veterans.
Gibson said in the statement sent to VA staff as well as staff on both the House and Senate committees on Veterans Affairs, that the MSPB decision was invalid because it came after a 21-day window required by the 2014 Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act.
"We believe today's untimely decision is unenforceable under the law, and does not entitle Ms. Weiss to return to VA employment," he said.
The Albany (N.Y.) Times Union recently reported that two male nurses at the Stratton VA hospital had stolen medications meant for veteran patients and another "remained on duty despite complaints from co-workers that he was sleeping on duty, including in the bed of a patient who had died the night before," along with other claims of veteran abuse by nurses on staff.
Gibson said in his statement that despite evidence that Weiss failed to hold her staff accountable, the MSPB ruled that she should not be fired, a decision the deputy secretary called "troubling from a factual and core values perspective."
"The [MSPB administrative] judge found that preponderant evidence established that Ms. Weiss failed to take timely action against a nursing assistant who repeatedly abused Veteran patients.
"Moreover, the judge specifically found that Ms. Weiss left the nursing assistant in a patient care role notwithstanding multiple reports that the nursing assistant mistreated the Veterans entrusted to her care. Despite this significant patient safety finding, the judge determined that it was 'unreasonable' for VA to remove Ms. Weiss. I could not disagree more."
Since a series of scandals at the VA came to light, starting in 2014, the agency has struggled to punish executives it deemed accountable. The MSPB has also come under fire for overruling a number of VA discipline actions.
Officials at the VA were unavailable for comment at the time of this posting.
