WASHINGTON — Whistleblowers help protect the public interest by reporting allegations of wrongdoing, such as violations of law, waste or gross mismanagement.
But the number of whistleblower retaliation cases the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)'s Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection has received is on the rise.
According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), those cases increased from 577 cases in 2020 to 736 cases in 2023.
The VA is one of the largest federal agencies employing around 400,000 people across more than 1,300 health care facilities and 172 VA Medical Centers, treating more than nine million veterans enrolled in the VA health care program.
Thomas Costa, the GAO Education, Workforce and Income Security team director, says there is much room for improvement there.
"There really should be no place for whistleblower retaliation in the federal government or anywhere really. These people are providing a valuable service.," he said in an interview with 13News Now.
Costa continued: "It's important that people have an avenue to bring waste, fraud and abuse or other misconduct forward without fear of reprisal. And too often in the past we've seen that people who do bring information forward do face reprisal, demotion or getting fired or things like that. It's just not right and it can't be acceptable."