We’d be remiss to ignore how the VA concluded its internal investigation into the cost-overrun and construction debacle involving its hospital in Aurora: with a few paragraphs last week buried in a press release.

Those who’ve followed the saga of the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital will hardly be surprised to learn the agency is satisfied that it has done all that is needed to clean up the mess, including dealing with those responsible.

It’s over, you see.

“No additional adverse personnel actions will be taken,” the press release declared. After all, those responsible for the fiasco “had departed from the VA” prior to the recent completion of its official Administrative Investigation Board (AIB) review — which is exceedingly convenient.

Speaking of that AIB report, neither the public nor even members of Congress have seen it. Instead, a few members of Congress have been able to read, on a confidential basis, a 31-page memorandum summarizing the findings.

And now that the VA has acknowledged mistakes and waited politely while a few culprits retired or “departed,” it would like to put the whole sorry business behind it. That’s hardly surprising, but it’s also premature given what the VA’s handling of the billion-dollar cost overrun in Aurora has revealed about the agency’s internal culture — one in which accountability still appears to be a dirty word.

Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., elaborated on this theme in an angry letter to VA secretary Robert McDonald after last week’s press release in which he also demanded public release of the full AIB report.

“I am deeply alarmed that the AIB appears to be crafted so as to focus blame on a handful of VA officials, and expediently for the administration, officials who retired prior to facing any discipline,” Coffman complained.

As Coffman noted, as early as 2010 VA officials realized that the Aurora project was in serious trouble, yet continued to assure Congress the hospital could be finished with existing funds.

“I still view the true scandal as VA’s efforts to hide the enormous problems in Aurora from Congress and the American people,” Coffman wrote. “As far as I can tell from the VA press release and summary, lying to Congress was not addressed in the AIB.”

Recent history has demonstrated how slowly the VA reacts to even egregious misconduct, let alone gross mismanagement of a gold-plated construction project like the Aurora hospital.

Fortunately, taxpayers have one more shot at getting a fuller picture of how the project veered so badly off track and the extent of actual wrongdoing, when the Office of Inspector General weighs in with its findings. If VA officials did indeed mislead Congress and the public, the IG’s report can’t afford to ignore it.

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