Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 24, 1992 TAG: 9203240264
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After being denied a request to participate on a VA review team from Washington, D.C., that is investigating allegations of low employee morale and deteriorating patient care, the American Federation of Government Employees is asking for a separate investigation - this time by the General Accounting Office.
"An investigation by the DVA at the Salem VA Medical Center is the equivalent of Congress investigating itself on the House Bank scandal," Alma Lee, president of the union at the Salem center, said. "We can be thankful it was the GAO that investigated them."
The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, was responsible for revealing check-bouncing practices by House members.
The call for a GAO investigation comes three days after the VA central office in Washington, D.C., denied the union's request that one of its members be appointed to the review team that will begin investigating the center today on claims of low morale, stressful working conditions and poor patient care.
The union is demanding an "impartial and full" GAO investigation of the medical center "to determine the true facts of the issues that have been raised," Lee said Monday.
Lee said she has written to congressional representatives, asking for their assistance.
Pat Clark, public information officer at the Salem center, said management has "every intention of cooperating with any authorized review team."
The union had asked that they be included on the team to ensure credibility of the investigation. But the VA central office "flat out" denied the request, without explanation, Lee said.
The announcement of a decision to send a review team to the center followed meetings in Washington two weeks ago between department officials and AFGE representatives from the Salem center. But there was some confusion as to exactly what - or who - prompted the investigation.
The day the investigation was announced, Clark Graninger, director of the Salem VA medical center, said through a public information officer that he had asked the VA Eastern Regional Office in Maryland for a review several weeks prior to union meetings with VA officials in Washington. That was confirmed through a spokesman at the regional office.
Union officials said they had known nothing about Graninger's request and were puzzled as to why he would ask for a review. Lee said she was under the distinct impression that the decision to send a review team was the result of union meetings with VA officials in D.C.
"Why request a review if you don't have a problem?" Lee asked. "He's claiming it was all political and that there was no truth to this. Why does he need a review?"
"It's really amazing that through all of this process that we knew nothing about it until the day after we met in D.C. It doesn't add up."
In a prepared statement, Graninger said he requested an external review team from the regional office on March 3 "to review various issues involving operations of the Medical Center."
The team "will review the issues and make any recommendations which will assist with the resolution of these issues," Graninger said.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.