Members of Colorado’s congressional delegation slammed U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald this week for touting his agency’s reform accomplishments during a Denver speech.

The VA has overhauled its construction practices, shortened patient-care waiting lists, become more efficient at meeting veterans’ needs and made other improvements, McDonald said during a speech Monday. His comments about how the agency has responded in the wake of its Aurora hospital construction debacle, struck a particular nerve with some in the Colorado delegation.

“I was deeply disappointed in McDonald’s speech … and it says everything about why he has not made a difference in cleaning up the VA,” U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, wrote in an e-mail to The Denver Post on Monday. “Pure spin. No substance. He is merely a place holder.”

McDonald spoke before about 400 people — Coffman and several other politicians among them — at a United Veterans Committee of Colorado banquet on April 10.

The VA did not respond to several efforts seeking reaction from McDonald to the lawmakers’ comments.

On Sunday, McDonald spoke of issues that have marred his time since taking charge in July 2014, including the $1.6 billion construction project at the VA medical center in Aurora which is $1 billion over budget and years behind schedule. An internal investigation found rampant mismanagement, but the VA has said no one currently with the agency will be disciplined.

“You can’t fire your way to excellence,” McDonald said after describing how those responsible had already left the agency or were demoted.

Coffman said McDonald has refused “to acknowledge the depth of the problems at the VA.”

Other federal elected officials at the banquet struck a similar note.

“The VA’s conclusion that no further personnel action was necessary to hold individuals accountable is an abdication of its responsibility,” U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet said in an e-mail to The Post.

Particularly troublesome to the Colorado delegation was McDonald’s characterization of the agency working in tandem with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in finishing the long-overdue VA center.

“Since we discovered errors in construction, we’ve made major reforms,” McDonald said. “We changed how we design, bid and construct facilities. And we’re shoulder-to-shoulder with the Army Corps of Engineers.”

Coffman said McDonald has it wrong.

“The reality is that the VA has been kicked off the project and permanently stripped of their ability to manage any construction projects in excess of $100 million which puts them out of the hospital building business altogether,” Coffman said.

Bennet agreed: “We stripped the VA of construction authority because the VA should devote its resources and personnel to improving the delivery of care to veterans and because it demonstrated incompetence building several medical facilities.”

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Arvada, also at the event, said the Army Corps was “now in charge” of the project.

“The VA Medical Facility has been woefully mismanaged from the start, which is why we passed legislation to strip the VA of its construction authority,” he said in an e-mail to The Post.

Another at the event, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, said he appreciates McDonald’s zeal, but noted little substance in VA’s handling of own construction mismanagement.

“I remain concerned … about the continued lack of accountability at the VA,” Gardner wrote in an e-mail. “I look forward to learning the results of the VA Office of Inspector General’s review and I expect decisive action against anyone who is found responsible.”

McDonald confirmed a criminal investigation was ongoing into the project’s mismanagement, but reiterated that those responsible are already gone.

“The evidence simply does not support actions against any individual still employed by VA,” McDonald told the UVC gathering. “We don’t administer punishment based on opinions, recycled and embellished media accounts, or external pressure.”

Coffman, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, also fumed when McDonald described a waiting-list scandal that erupted in the VA’s Veterans’ Health Administration in Phoenix in 2014 and spread nationwide as having stemmed from a lack of training.

“I can’t believe he said that,” Coffman wrote. “It had nothing to do with a lack of training but was fundamental to a culture of corruption. VA employees manipulated their appointment wait records to show that they were meeting specific goals in order to receive cash bonuses.”

David Migoya: 303-954-1506, dmigoya@denverpost.com or @davidmigoya