Tag Archives: John Sepulveda

Second VA official resigns over conference spending

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Originally posted by Jason Miller on Federal News Radio

Another senior official at the Veterans Affairs Department is out because of the conference spending scandal.

Alice Muellerweiss, the dean of VA's Learning University, resigned today.

"VA has taken administrative action against two career senior executives named in the OIG report," a VA spokeswoman said in a statement. "One employee has subsequently resigned. The other employee has been reassigned to other duties."

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Veterans Affairs’ overspending at conferences linked to poor contract execution

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Originally posted by Charles S. Clark on Government Executive

Among the many lapses the Veterans Affairs Department may have committed in planning two lavish training conferences in Orlando, Fla., in 2011 was a failure to adhere to contracting procedures.

The inspector general's report on the $6.1 million pair of employee gatherings, which led to the resignation of the department's Chief Human Capital Officer John Sepulveda, focused mostly on overspending, wrongful acceptance of gifts by employees and unnecessary advance trips to plan the conferences.

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VA cracks down on conference spending

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Following a new inspector general's audit of two conferences held in 2011, the Veterans Affairs Department has enacted numerous tactics to check spending, root out misconduct by employees and keep senior officials involved in conference planning.

One key control is a new requirement that a senior executive must approve all proposed conferences or training sessions, the department said in a statement Oct. 1.

The undersecretary, assistant secretary or similarly-ranked VA official has to give approval for a conference proposal with project costs reaching to $100,000. If the expected costs exceed $100,000, the deputy secretary and the chief of staff must approve. Conferences with a bill expected to exceed $500,000 are generally prohibited, unless the VA secretary gives a waiver. As an additional check, officials must do an "After Action Review" following the conference to compare proposed costs to actual costs.

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IG report cites failed leadership in wasteful VA conference spending

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Originally posted by Jack Moore on Federal News Radio

Two Veterans Affairs Department training conferences held last summer in Orlando, Fla., contained as much as $762,000 in wasteful spending and were plagued by poor planning and oversight, according to an inspector general report released Monday.

In the report, the IG said although the conferences were held for legitimate purposes, agency leadership "failed to provide proper oversight in the planning and execution" of the two conferences. Specifically, Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration John Sepulveda "abdicated his responsibilities" by failing to provide guidance to agency senior executives and taking a "hands-off approach."

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