Released 11/17/15 at Federal News Radio | Tags: Veteran's Benefits
NVLSP's Ron Abrams talks with Federal News Radio on Michael Missal's nomination to be the new Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. When asked what advocates think a new IG should be doing Abrams says:
“He needs to hire the right people to delve into the VA and he has to have enough support from the administration so that he can expose this and have reassurances that they will act,” said Ron Abrams, joint executive director at the National Veterans Legal Services Program. “That’s what we’re hoping for. He has to be competent enough to hire people with the right background. He has to hire people who understand the purpose of this. It’s a sacred trust. The VA is supposed to take care of those who risked their lives for us.”
Abrams, a former legal consultant to the VA’s Compensation and Pension Service (C&P), said an ideal inspector general would be someone “who knows how to turn over rocks and look for bad things, can hire people to do that, and enough backing to change what is a corrupt bureaucracy. We want somebody honest, and it looks like this guy’s honest. We want someone who will hire people with enough knowledge that they won’t be hoodwinked or deceived by bureaucrats in the VA.”