The VA Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection’s mission is to investigate complaints of whistleblower retaliation and senior-level misconduct and poor performance within the notoriously scandal-ridden department, and then make disciplinary recommendations to the secretary. But nearly three years after the office’s creation, whistleblowers across the VA are still facing retaliation, and few senior officials have been held accountable for misconduct.

The office was established in 2017 with strong support from President Donald Trump, who claimed the reforms he was making would be one of his “crown jewels.” POGO and other accountability-focused organizations opposed the placement of the office within the department, arguing that its lack of independence from the department’s leadership would complicate its efforts to hold senior officials accountable.

Creating an internal office to address whistleblower retaliation is unusual, but the VA has a particularly rich history of abuses, many of which have been compounded by a lack of accountability for misconduct. The department has a well-documented history of firing whistleblowers after they speak up about problems, but has a dismal record when it comes to holding people accountable for poor performance or egregious misconduct.

An October 2019 report from the VA’s Office of Inspector General examined the accountability office’s first year and a half, and described how its leadership in that period “made avoidable mistakes” and how the office “floundered in its mission to protect whistleblowers.”

For example, the same 2017 law that established the accountability office also made it easier for the VA to fire senior executives and made it harder for courts to overturn those firings. However, the accountability office’s leaders interpreted the 2017 law as giving their office leeway to conduct what amounted to short and sloppy investigations. The inspector general found that those incomplete investigations likely contributed to the fact that only three VA officials were disciplined in the way the accountability office recommended. The 32 other times the office recommended disciplinary actions in its first year and a half, the VA reduced the punishments.