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Rep. Hardy Grills VA Officials With Tough Questions

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

Congressman Cresent Hardy led his first subcommittee hearing as chairman last week questioning VA officials about alleged violations of public trust.
Congressman Cresent Hardy led his first subcommittee hearing as chairman last week questioning VA officials about alleged violations of public trust.

Freshman U.S. Congressman Cresent Hardy led his first hearing as Chairman of the Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations last week on Tuesday, June 23. The hearing looked into allegation of fraud and waste in the federal Veterans Administration (VA) handling of veterans benefits and their reporting of interactions with the small business sector.

The joint hearing, held in conjunction with the Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, highlighted the testimony of Jan Frye, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. Frye had come forward as a whistleblower of VA procedures in recent months.

At the hearing, Frye made allegations that VA officials had broken the law in hiding billions in spending from the public and had deprived small businesses of the opportunity to compete for contracts. In his testimony, he described what he perceived as the VA’s manipulation and misreporting of contract dollars as “one of the most deceptive schemes” he has seen in his 41 years of government service.

Frye alleged that $6 billion to $10 billion in procurements were being concealed in an attempt to inflate the Department’s small business goal numbers. As a result of this alleged fraud, the Department had received an “A” on the Small Business Administration scorecard rather than the “D” or “F” that it would have received if correct numbers had been used, Frye claimed.
“VA senior leaders have willfully violated the public trust, debasing federal procurement and financial laws,” said Frye. “We have senior-leader integrity malaises [at the] VA. Like substance abusers before the journey to recovery, [the VA] will not be cured until we admit we have a disease. we have deceived the veteran-owned small-business community, while violating federal laws.”

Disputing these allegations before the joint hearing was Thomas Leney, of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization at the VA. Leney claimed that the department had not broken the law, but simply conducted “improper accounting.”

In his line of questioning, Hardy pointed out that Leney had received nearly $9,000 in performance bonuses in Fiscal Year 2013 that were based on those misreported numbers. He asked if that and other bonuses to VA officials were justified or whether the bonuses ought to possibly be paid back.
“I received a bonus award in 2013,” Leney said. “My focus is on providing access to economic opportunity for small business and we did that.”

In his final statement before the joint hearing, Hardy stated that he wished he could leave the meeting confident that the issues had been addressed and problems solved.
“Based on what we have heard here today it is evident to me that the VA and the Obama Administration has failed our veterans, small business owners and the American taxpayers,” Hardy said. “For this I give these agencies and this administration an F. When the executive branch fails to act responsibly, we in Congress need to revisit the authorities provided to those agencies. I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that our nations’ laws are upheld, our veterans honored and small businesses thrive.”

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