VA Secretary McDonald: ICARE or Icarus?

 Nominated on July 7^th 2014, VA Secretary Robert McDonald pledged to transform the scandal plagued department into a ´´Veteran-centered VA´´.

 In his message displayed on VA website, titled ´´Reaffirmation of our VA missions and values´´, Secretary McDonald presented his concept of ´´I CARE´´, the set of values for VA to live by:´´ These values — Integrity, Commitment, Advocacy, Respect, and Excellence — define our culture and strengthen our dedication to those we serve.´´

Mr. McDonald has undoubtedly altered the image of the department, but is he a leader opting for a true metamorphosis or just an insignificant actor in much larger ´´Fundamental Transformation´´?

Communication

The style of communication of the VA´s reformer is adorned with multitudinous speeches on quality of leadership, CEO-like presentations, marketing logos and company schemas such as ´´Building Trusted Relationship´´. Mr. McDonald visibly wants to be seen as a businessman, and yet he seems to forget that in the corporate world there is an obligation of results.

With thousands of our Veterans homeless, thousands waiting for care and benefits they had earned, giving lessons on leadership seems simply indecent. Catchy slogans and diagrams of ´´strategic partnership´´ add insult to injury for fed up Veterans and clash with military culture where actions speak louder than words.

Values and purpose

On January 29 in Georgetown, McDonald made yet another presentation, this time preaching on ´´developing and shaping your own purpose and values´´. VA secretary underlined that successful leaders must be purposeful and deliberate; according to the indefatigable speaker the key of improving lives of other people is ´´Making that purpose pervasive and making those values pervasive´´.

Right now the only ´´pervasive´´ characteristic of VA seems to be corruption; time and money visibly wasted for purposes other than helping our Veterans bring to mind going through the motions of saving Veterans lives while doing nothing ´´purposefully and deliberately´´.

In terms of integrity Secretary McDonald made the department no favor by shielding unfit employees and by substituting term ´´lie´´ with ´´misstatement´´.

Coercion

In an organizational context, transformation translates to a process of radical change that orients an organization in a new direction. Since VA´s priorities are traditionally different than addressing the most urgent needs of our homeless Veterans, and firing execs in waiting list scandal is still not an option – VA didn´t change that much.

An important alteration can be observed only in increasingly coercive measures and shameful treatment of whistleblowers.

 On VA page (Twitter, Feb 14 at 12H) figures: ´´Here is our plan to give Veterans the VIP treatment through IT development´´; the corporate schema is as a matter of course embellished with ´´Transparency´´, ´´VA Accountability´´ and ´´Teamwork´´ slogans.

Meanwhile, the Office of Special Counsel has noted a dramatic increase in demand for their services and is snowed under claims of retaliation and complaints about the quality of VA hospital care. It looks like VA took the ´´IT development´´ to a whole new level: the scandal involving the ´´Sec Divert Internal´´ list is already in the making. It seems that E-mails from whistleblowers whose names figured on the lists were ´´diverted´´ and sent to the VA secretary´s office in Washington, D.C.

VA police also seems to receive more creative orders than ´´To Serve and Protect Those Who Have Served´´. Recently, in Los Angeles, VA police took a legal swing at a honorable Veteran, famous for Homeless Veterans ´rights activism. Old Veteran Guard Leader, Mr. Robert Rosebrock and fellow Homeless Veterans human rights activist Mr. Ted Hayes were accused for displaying…American flag on VA walls while peacefully protesting against inhuman treatment of our homeless heroes.

 The disgraceful VA´s action sent shockwaves through Veteran community. VA seeks jail time and ludicrous four figure fine for the´´ crime´´ and turns the act of displaying the flag into ´´ distribution of pamphlets and placards ´´.

Meanwhile, as reported by ´´Kare´´Minneapolis, shadowy figures such as nurse´s aide Frederic Kevin Harris charged with manslaughter for beating to death our 70 years old Veteran, or Dr. Daniel Kim –an ophthalmologist  whose patient a WWII Veteran became blind as a result of a ´´medical mystery´´ are still VA employees. Dr. Jose Bejar ,a VA´s own neurologist was not required to give back  $ 330,000 he pocketed from taxpayers while on paid leave ( denying 5 ugly sexual-misconduct charges) or even after pleading no contest to aggravated sexual battery.

VA Deputy, Sloan Gibson gets ballistic when it´s time to talk about accountability for disgraceful bureaucrats such as Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves, and Sec. McDonald told a Senate panel: ´´You can´t fire your way to excellence´´.

Does Robert McDonald´s ´´way to excellence´´ lead through prosecuting our honorable Vietnam Veteran and charging him with possession of American flag which VA dares to call ´´a placard´´?

There is an interesting parallel between Sec. McDonald´s transformation of VA and a Greek myth. Although he was warned Icarus didn´t listen to his father Daedalus; Secretary Mc Donald won´t listen to Veterans- whistleblowers.

The acronym ´´I care´´ sounds a lot like mythological ´´Icarus´´, who due to hubris burned his wings while flying too close to the sun he revered…

Joanna Rosamond