It never stops…the rewards of failure brought to you by the party of “smaller government” and the party that was going to bring “integrity” back to Washington. It ‘ll take years and bulldozers to clean the shit up the Republicans have made of Washington. Here, the absolute failure of the Veternan’s Administration are given bonuses for a “heck of a job”.

Nearly two dozen officials who received hefty performance bonuses last year at the Veterans Affairs Department also sat on the boards charged with recommending the payments.

 

Documents obtained by The Associated Press raise questions of conflict of interest in connection with the bonuses, some of which went to senior officials involved in crafting a budget that came up $1.3 billion short and jeopardized veterans’ health care.

The documents show that 21 of 32 officials who were members of VA performance review boards received more than half a million dollars in payments themselves.

Among them: nearly a dozen senior officials who devised the flawed 2005 budget. Also rewarded was the deputy undersecretary for benefits, who manages a system with severe backlogs of veterans waiting for disability benefits.

Some members of the review boards, which are appointed by VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, also had input on bonus recommendations involving themselves, fellow members and spouses who made questionable performance claims and neglected agency problems.