"... tell the VA procurement officers to start shopping at Hobby Lobby."
Sculptures than cost more than five-bedroom homes?
Christmas trees that are the price of some cars?
VA SPENDS MONEY ON HIGH-END ART,
WHILE VETERANS WAIT FOR APPOINTMENTS
ABC News, WSB-Atlanta
by Justin Gray | National Bureau COX Media
Watch the ABC investigation | "Play" the embedded video above
Last night, we helped expose more egregious waste at Veterans Affairs.
Partnering with the COX Media Washington, D.C. News Bureau; ABC affiliate station WSB-TV Atlanta; and investigative reporter Justin Gray, we found millions of dollars in VA spending on luxury art.
It's millions of dollars on high-end artwork spent by the VA, and that's just a fraction of the waste...
Now, the VA administrators say they are going to institute new rules to stop the waste on expensive artwork. They promised a new policy over the next 90-days.
Watch the ABC investigation | "Play" the embedded video above
While veterans wait in line to see a doctor, the VA is busy purchasing:
- A twenty-seven foot artificial Christmas tree costing: $21,000.
- 'Local image' pics for the San Francisco VA facility costing: $34,000.
- Artwork for the new VA medical center in Puerto Rico costing: $500,000.
- A landscape rock for the VA Palo Alto, CA center costing: $500,000.
- $6.0 million in artwork purchased for new California VA centers.
At OpenTheBooks.com, we are committed to holding the VA accountable.
Last month, we debuted our OpenTheBooks Snapshot Oversight Report - The VA Scandal Two Years Later, with a column at Forbes, Read it here.
We found that the VA created 40,000 new positions, but less than one in eleven of those new positions were doctors. Today, up to 500,000 veterans still wait to see a doctor.
Search by work location our OpenTheBooks interactive map of the 354,000 VA employees with name, position, salary and bonus, click here.
You now have the tools and data to hold the VA accountable.
This can't be the end-of-the-story.
Our veterans fought for us and we must fight for them!