For years, Coloradans have endured shame and embarrassment over the enormous cost overruns and the continued delayed opening of the new veterans hospital in Aurora. Comprehensive investigative reports from The Denver Post and documented findings of shortcomings by federal watchdogs have offered details meant to explain the many lapses that swelled the hospital’s expected cost by more than $1 billion. But at the gut-level understanding that many understandably rely on, we would guess that readers see the construction project as simply another crown jewel among examples of government incompetence at its finest.

Such a boiled-down assessment might help explain the latest outrage. Turns out one of the key players in the debacle has been quietly promoted. As recently reported by The Post’s Mark K. Matthews, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs named Stella Fiotes to serve as its acting head of the divisions that — wait for it — handles acquisition, logistics and construction.

Congressman Mike Coffman, whose district includes the new hospital, is rightly demanding answers. As director of the VA’s Office of Construction and Facilities Management, Fiotes oversaw the construction of the new Aurora facility, which is expected to finally open next year after a four-year delay. Back in 2014, in testimony to Congress, Fiotes maintained that the hospital could be built within its expected $800 million budget, an assertion in question, given that the project’s cost already had grown from $604 million. Coffman later argued that Fiotes’ performance that day amounts to perjury, as evidence now shows comments about what became the $1.7 billion price tag were untrue.

“I urge you to appoint a permanent principal executive director (of the construction office) who is well qualified and untainted by scandal as quickly as possible,” the Republican wrote to VA Secretary David Shulkin.

This spring the Justice Department ruled there was insufficient evidence to back a perjury conviction. The findings underscored a bizarre fact. Despite the cost to taxpayers and extended delays to veterans, no VA official has been fired and none face criminal charges. Glenn Haggstrom, who Fiotes replaces and who also was subject to the perjury review, resigned in 2015 a day after VA officials interviewed him about problems with the Aurora facility. Other officials engaged in the many mistakes were either transferred or demoted.

The Post published a lengthy report in 2015 about the problems that led to the Aurora hospital’s overruns, finding that agency officials repeatedly ignored warnings about the growing price. The next year, a VA Inspector General review confirmed the findings, noting: “Escalating costs and schedule slippages are primarily the result of poor business decisions, inexperience with the type of contract used and mismanagement by VA senior leaders.”

When the Justice Department declined perjury charges, Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., argued Haggstrom’s “lies cost the taxpayers of this country hundreds of millions of dollars.”

And yet now Haggstrom’s sidekick is at the helm.

This one’s on the Trump administration. The president promised a better VA among his pledges to drain the swamp in Washington — not the status quo. We hope for better than this.

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