On May 7, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs held another hearing into the construction problems occurring on major projects being overseen by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs. Officials with the VA, the Government Accountability Office and the Veterans of Foreign Wars all testified before the House committee.
During the hearing, Lorelei St. James, a director with GAO, summarized her agency's April report on VA construction projects, which cited numerous problems with its construction management practices, including poor handling of change orders and inefficient selection of hospital equipment.
The Committee on Veterans' Affairs labeled the hearing with a title that seemed to hint at its members' assessment of the ongoing problems: "VA Construction Policy: Failed Plans Result in Plans That Fail." (An August 2012 hearing into problems at the Orlando VA hospital project was entitled, "Broken Ground, Broken Promises.")
The House committee posted a single video of the May 7 proceedings to its Youtube channel. Included below, the two-minute video is entitled, "VA Exec Can't Explain Why He Collected $54,792 in Bonuses." In it, Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), asked Glenn D. Haggstrom, principal executive director of the VA's Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Construction, if he believed he deserved to receive those bonuses in light of the GAO report.
