nuclear-news

The U.S. Office of the Special Counsel, or OSC, whose role is to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, has been on a virtual hiatus for the past two years. It is even less responsive now than it had been under previous administrations.

Recently, several whistleblowers at the Veterans Health Administration Member Services office in Atlanta did get a response from OSC, but not the one they were looking for. Instead of protecting the whistleblowers, OSC officials decided to take the side of the VA leadership.

They authorized VA to conduct an illegal criminal investigation into whistleblowers who had previously reported wrongdoing by VA management officials.

According to the VA Office of the Medical Inspector, or OMI, OSC contacted former Secretary David Shulkin on Feb. 13 for the purpose of investigating a complaint that several known VA whistleblowers, including myself, had violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. That law was established to address criminal cyberactivity involving government computer systems, not to retaliate against whistleblowers who may have discovered and reported wrongdoing because of emails they received in the course of their jobs.

Apparently, the VA thinks it is a good use of OMI’s time to persecute whistleblowers for speaking to Congress instead of investigating the myriad problems with VA’s handling of veteran patient care. The “M,” after all, does stand for “medical.”……https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/va-launches-criminal-investigation-against-whistleblowers