The Department of Veterans Affairs has $66.9 billion in committed contracts — the most procurement dollars of all the U.S. government’s civilian agencies (i.e. not the Department of Defense).
Unfortunately, the VA also appears to rank high in fraud.
The VA’s Office of Inspector General recently audited just 20 VA contracts for compliance; it found overcharging in 11 of them. At least two cases involved fraud against the government — False Claims Act violations that the government pursued and recovered $13.4 million.
The VAOIG released the results in July.
But the point lands: Nearly $67 billion worth of VA contracts are vulnerable to fraud.
The VA offers valuable care for veterans — but the massive agency needs help from whistleblowers to root out this fraud. Otherwise, those tax dollars sidestep deserving veterans and instead line the pockets of fraudsters.
“We honor veterans when we thank them for their service, but we can also honor them by protecting the taxpayer funds allocated to support them after their service – ensuring that money reaches them, not fraudsters,” Keller Grover whistleblower attorney Kate Scanlan wrote in an analysis for The Anti-Fraud Coalition. “Whistleblowers play a vital role in that effort, exposing fraud in VA contracts and discouraging future fraud before it happens.”
VA contracts cover a broad swath of industries. Healthcare and drugs rank high, but benefits for veterans also include vocational services, support for Veteran-owned small businesses, disability compensation, pensions, college and training programs, housing assistance, burials, and survivor and dependent benefits.
That means fraud could take many guises.
Here are a couple of recent examples:
- In June, a federal grand jury convicted the CEO of a health care software company in a conspiracy to defraud federal health care benefit programs of more than $1 billion. Basically, the scheme involved misleading senior citizens and veterans to accept medically unnecessary treatments, presenting false and fraudulent doctors’ orders (the patients never were examined). Pharmacies, durable medical equipment suppliers, and telemarketers paid kickbacks and bribes for the fake doctors’ orders.
- In April, a career services manager for a school that offers veterans job training programs pleaded guilty for his part in a scheme to defraud the VA of almost $3 million. He forged documents to make it look like veterans had gotten jobs, thus triggering tuition payments from the VA.
If you suspect fraud or other wrongdoing, help protect both taxpayer dollars and the individuals those dollars are supposed to help by saying something. In addition, whistleblowers can receive significant rewards for this assistance.
Keller Grover offers free and confidential consultations; we can advise you about your situation and the best path forward. We are uniquely positioned to represent whistleblowers, with more than 30 years of combined experience litigating fraud cases with billions in recoveries for our clients.