LOS ANGELES—Robert Rosebrock, director of the Old Veterans Guard in Los Angeles, an ad hoc group that has fought the Los Angeles Veteran Affairs Department for illegally allowing private entities on the VA campus, was pleased to hear about VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s resignation on May 30.
Rosebrock has written about the lack of response and responsibility of the VA in Veterans Today for some years now.
According to the Office of the Inspector General’s summary report, “The VA needs a leader who will take swift and decisive action to discipline employees responsible for mismanagement, negligence and corruption that harms veterans while taking bold steps to replace the department’s culture of complacency with a climate of accountability.”
“The new secretary needs to instill fear in this unpatriotic and incompetent bureaucracy and boldly announce that ‘business as usual’ is over,” Rosebrock said. “General Shinseki was a good man but too gentle and trusting to manage the self-serving VA bureaucrats. Veterans need a hard-nosed drill sergeant to run the VA, not a four-star general.”
Core Problem: Lax Computer Access Controls
The Inspector General’s report faulted lax computer system access controls that allowed too many people to change data, entry dates, treatment, etc., in the VA system.
“Secretary Shinseki’s resignation opens the door for new VA leadership to operate with total authority and make the changes that are necessary. The new leader must have the reins removed because a multitude of VA bureaucrats need to be fired, posthaste,” Rosebrock added.
At the top of the list for Rosebrock is Donna Beiter, executive director and commander of the Los Angeles VA who has two federal judgments entered against her, and one that implicated General Shinseki as a co-defendant for nine illegal real estate deals on the Los Angeles VA campus.
Rosebrock and Los Angeles veterans are looking for a resolution that returns those VA properties to the VA for housing and other care facilities.
