Department of Veterans Affairs officials may be sugarcoating and attempting to mislead Donald Trump's transition team in the hope the president-elect will decide to keep the current VA secretary, the Washington Examiner reported.
The Examiner's story comes amid a story earlier this week that 20 veterans groups are petitioning Trump to keep Robert McDonald in his cabinet.
"The VA is trying to paint a much rosier picture of the state of affairs . . . for the transition team than is reality," the Examiner reported.
The VA refuted the report, telling the Examiner in a statement:
"VA staff have engaged in clear, candid conversations with the transition team and continue to do so every day."
The report also comes on the same day that Trump is reportedly considering Navy Admiral Michelle Howard to lead the beleaguered agency.
Specifically, one whistleblower told the Examiner that the VA is fudging the results of the veterans' suicide hotline, which came under fire earlier this year over a report that one in five veterans couldn't get through to a VA professional when it called the service.
"In terms of the transition team, they're being told . . . that the call center is great, everything is going well, and we're actually going to be able to move everything over to 100 percent staff-based [VA call centers] by the end of the month," Scott Davis told the Examiner.
The problem with that: The VA is extending the contract of its current third-party provider that manages the hotline, Davis told the Examiner.
It's just one of several fires that have plagued the VA the past few years, from mistakes in VA hospitals leading to the deaths of 500 vets, to the massive delays in treatment at the Phoenix VA, to the recent story of a dead vet left to decompose for nine hours at a Florida VA.
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