“What began as an initiative to improve seismic safety and veteran care now serves as a case study in bureaucratic drift. But this type of administrative breakdown is nothing new; the V.A. has long struggled to manage large capital projects and follow through on institutional commitments. From the Phoenix wait-time scandal in 2014—where staff falsified records to hide long delays in veteran care—to the more recent, failed $16 billion rollout of its Electronic Health Records (EHR) system, which was plagued by cost overruns and usability issues, the agency has a well-documented history of dysfunction.
The OIG report calls on the V.A. to reevaluate whether the project should continue. While that’s a difficult call after spending almost half a billion dollars (as of February 2025), it is very clearly a necessary step if the wasteful project is to be shut down. The center’s board of directors might think so too; it did not prioritize the ambulatory care facility in its FY 2026 budget request, and has been indecisive on how to proceed with future budget requests necessary to finance the project.
These actions, along with the implementation of updated contract guidelines in May and the call for a full departmental review in July, might suggest the V.A. finally recognizes that it has serious problems. However, until systemic accountability becomes ingrained in the V.A., boondoggles like the one in Palo Alto will continue at the expense of taxpayers and veterans’ health.”
https://reason.com/2025/09/15/in-16-years-the-v-a-turned-this-450-million-hospital-project-into-a-1-6-billion-boondoggle/
Republican demonization of federal workers goes back decades.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqd1h90iQoQ
“The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (V.A.) lost nearly $2.4 million on data plans for iPhones and iPads that were supposed to help homeless veterans connect to telehealth services. Ultimately, 85 percent of the iPhones meant to be loaned went unused and remained in storage one year after their purchase, according to a new inspector general’s report.
Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the V.A. received $14.4 billion to be used on health services for homeless veterans and those at risk of becoming homeless. A chunk of that money went to the department’s Office of Connected Care, which has loaned communications devices to veterans since 2014 so they can access telehealth services.
Connected Care launched a new program in the summer of 2020 that loans iPhones and iPads, equipped with prepaid 12-month data plans, to veterans. Officials spent $63 million on 80,930 iPads and $8.1 million on 10,000 iPhones during FY 2020 and the first two quarters of FY 2021.
“Connected Care’s procedures led to excessive wasted data plans while the iPads and iPhones remained in storage,” according to the report. In July 2021, one year after their initial purchase, “8,544 iPhones (85 percent) remained in storage.” In addition to the money lost on buying phones that went unused, the V.A. also wasted cash on unused data plans. Because contractors activated data plans before shipment to the V.A. and not upon delivery to veterans, the agency lost roughly $1.8 million on data for iPhones and $571,000 on data for iPads as the devices sat in storage.
“This occurred because Connected Care officials were not able to identify the quantity needed for the targeted veteran population because of uncertainties associated with COVID-19 and the lack of data on the quantity needed for a new initiative,” concluded the report. Ultimately, demand for iPhones “was much lower than anticipated”—but the V.A. failed to predict this prior to its purchases and did not take sufficient corrective actions along the way. Excess devices ended up getting shuffled to a separate office within the department for distribution to homeless veterans, but not before losing the V.A. millions of dollars simply by sitting on shelves.”