Philadelphia VA Executives Abused Positions For Financial Gain

Report: Senior VA executives abused positions for financial gain
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: September 28, 2015

WASHINGTON — A senior Department of Veterans Affairs manager hired to clean up a beleaguered regional office in Philadelphia misused her position to create the very vacancy she volunteered for as part of a wider scheme by VA officials to give stealth raises to executives, according to a VA Office of Inspector General report.

Diana Rubens, director of the

Department of Veterans Affairs'

Philadelphia regional office,

is sworn in at a House hearing

in April, 2015.

JOE GROMELSKI/STARS AND STRIPES

The Office of Inspector General had been investigating Philadelphia VA Regional Office Director Diana Rubens since March, after it became known that she had received nearly $300,000 in compensation to move about 140 miles from Washington to Philadelphia. While the Inspector General’s office concluded that her moving expenses were allowable, it found she and one other executive had manipulated the VA hiring system to both create vacancies they sought for financial gain in an era of government pay freezes.

The Inspector General has made a criminal referral to the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office for actions by Rubens and St. Paul (Minn.) Director Kimberly Graves, who is accused of a similar scheme to become director of the St. Paul Veterans Affairs Regional Office. No charges have been filed.

Rubens and Graves retained their salaries, $181,497 and $173,949, respectively, despite taking new positions with fewer responsibilities at lower rungs on the federal pay scale. Together they received about $400,000 in moving expenses.
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