A top official at the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs resigned Friday after taking much of the criticism for the agency’s management failures and facing a congressional hearing next week over misusing a taxpayer-funded employee relocation program.
Allison Hickey, head of the Veterans Benefits Administration, quit her job overseeing the delivery of benefits to more than 12 million veterans and their families.
VA Secretary Bob McDonald praised Ms. Hickey as “an exceptional colleague and an even better friend to me.”
“Her commitment to excellence and service to our country is unquestioned,” Mr. McDonald said in a statement.
But House Veterans Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller, Florida Republican, said Ms. Hickey “was not cut out for the job.” His panel has scheduled a hearing for next week on abuses in the management relocation program that she oversaw.
“She leaves the department amid a damning office of inspector general report linking her to a scheme in which senior Veterans Benefits Administration officials abused their authority, resulting in the misuse of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars,” Mr. Miller said in a statement. “And though VA statistics show the disability benefits backlog shrank on her watch, those figures must be taken with a healthy grain of salt in light of assertions from prominent veterans groups and even VA’s own inspector general that the department’s backlog numbers are not to be trusted.”
Mr. Miller said the VBA “needs a leader who will put veterans – not VA bureaucrats first – while working to end the backlog without sacrificing quality, accuracy or service to veterans. Unfortunately, Hickey was not that type of leader.”
She was roundly criticized by Republicans in Congress as investigations found mismanagement, lost records and other failings in the Veterans Benefits Administration.
In a farewell email to colleagues, Ms. Hickey said she took the job four and-a-half years ago “as a calling to transform VBA and to help so many veterans, service members, their families and survivors.”
“My heart and passion will always be focused on that aim,” she said. “After 4.5 years of this blessed honor, it is time to serve others and you in a different way.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.