By Kristine Frazao
Sinclair Broadcast Group
ABC, NBC, CBS, & FOX local affiliates across America
June 3, 2014

VA SALARY AND BONUS OpenTheBooks.com
WATCH SEGMENT HERE: https://youtu.be/IRBs6uRKJT8

Kristine Frazao, National Correspondent

WASHINGTON, DC-
It is becoming clear the problems at the department of Veterans Affairs cannot be blamed on money. In just the last five years about 136 billion dollars went to pay salaries of V.A. employees, and another 282 million went strictly to bonuses. (source: OpenTheBooks.com)

The practice overall is one that Jeff Miller, the Chairman of the House of Veterans Affairs Committee, finds disturbing.

"Look, you shouldn't get a bonus for doing your job and that's what apparently V.A. does. In the private sector you get to keep your job," said Miller.

Perhaps the most shocking part about the bonuses is what is not being funded, more doctors and nurses to care for veterans often forced to wait more than a hundred days, not to mention dozens of other services and resources, cut completely.

Adam Andrzejewski, the founder of openthebooks.com said, "In the Memphis V.A. they eliminated the aqua therapy pool, which was really popular and necessary to rehabilitation services because they cited a lack of funding, but of course in the last three years one million dollars’ worth of bonuses were paid out to employees."

Washington DC is the number one location where V.A. employees earn the highest salaries and much of that, according to openthebooks.com goes to top executives and V.A. lawyers.

Andrzejewski said, "the bureaucracies serving the bureaucracies at the V.A. and they've lost sight of their mission and that's to give good healthcare to veterans."