Donovan Slack

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – As President Trump signed an executive order Thursday seeking to provide more protections to whistle-blowers at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the very people he's trying to protect are leery.

In locations spanning from Arizona to Delaware, and Florida to Wisconsin, current and former employees who endured retaliation from superiors after they reported abuses have watched as those managers retained their positions — and were even promoted in some cases.

In Tomah, Wis., a human resources manager is still in place seven years after signing off on punishment for a psychologist who raised concerns about a colleague prescribing too many narcotics at the hospital. The psychologist, Christopher Kirkpatrick, went home and committed suicide.

The hospital later became known as “candy land” because of the prolific prescriptions, and a veteran died there in 2014 from mixed drug toxicity.

The same HR manager did nothing as now-former employee Ryan Honl was stripped of his job duties, locked out of his office and isolated from coworkers a day after he reported fraud and other problems at the Tomah hospital, Honl said. His direct supervisor who initiated the actions in 2014 got a promotion.

"Until there are concrete changes all the way down the chain of command at VA hospitals,” Honl told USA TODAY, “it's all hot air.”

The order Trump signed creates a new office at the VA that will investigate allegations of misconduct – including retaliation against whistle-blowing employees who reported abuses — and seek to identify systemic barriers that have previously hindered the agency's top leaders from more adequately addressing such problems in the past, including with disciplinary action.

"With the creation of this office, we are sending a strong message: Those who fail our veterans will be held, for the first time, accountable," Trump said. "At the same time, we will reward and retain the many VA employees who do a fantastic job, of which we have many. ...We have also some of the most honest employees, and some of them expose wrongdoing, and we will make sure that they're protected."

The Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection will report directly to VA Secretary David Shulkin and focus on all levels of the agency. A different office set up in 2014 with similar goals focused more on senior leaders.

“My concern is in regards to the individuals that will make up this office,” said Germaine Clarno, a social worker who exposed misconduct at the VA in Hines, Ill. “My fear is that it will be the same bureaucrats that got us into this mess.”

Clarno, who co-founded a group two years ago of more than 40 whistle-blowers from VA medical facilities in more than a dozen states, said the “fear of retaliation has gotten worse not better.”

“You can put together any office, pass legislation and put in place executive orders, but until whistle-blowers are honored and recognized for their courage and dedication nothing will be considered authentic,” she said.

Trump was joined at the signing Thursday by Brandon Coleman, an outspoken addiction counselor who reported lapses in care of mental health patients at the Phoenix VA in 2015 and then was subjected to allegations of misconduct and internal investigations.

"For this new whistle-blower division to be successful within the VA, it is important that whistle-blowers are included,” Coleman told USA TODAY. “We are the only ones who were telling the truth about wait times, lack of care for suicidal vets and other issues over the past three years. We are a valuable resource and know firsthand what happens within the VA to us for simply telling the truth."

Back at the Phoenix VA, Kuauhtemoc Rodriguez says it’s still happening. Rodriguez, chief of specialty care clinics scheduling, is facing internal investigation and discipline after he reported improperly canceled appointments and delays in veteran care.

“I doubt the presidential order will curb the abuse happening at the Phoenix VA or any other VA,” he said.

Shea Wilkes, a social worker at the VA in Shreveport, La., who co-founded the whistle-blower group with Clarno, says he still has many questions about the new office, including about how it will be staffed and how much power it will have. He is hoping for follow-through.

“Until the VA shows and follows through on its promises to protect whistle-blowers they will never root out the internal problems that plague the VA,” Wilkes said.

The VA, the second largest federal agency with more than 300,000 employees and some 1,500 hospitals and clinics across the nation, has been under near constant fire to provide better care and services to veterans since at least 2014, when whistle-blowers reported that veterans had died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix VA. Schedulers there had kept secret wait lists masking how long they were waiting.

Read more:

Whistleblowers unite to push for VA changes

For one whistleblower, getting fired was too much

President Trump to sign executive order creating VA accountability office