Lawmaker Hill rips VA with 2nd Golden Fleece

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the second straight year is being recognized by an Arkansas congressman for all the wrong reasons.

U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Little Rock, on Wednesday awarded the VA the Golden Fleece Award for what the VA office of inspector general has called mismanagement of an $8 million solar panel project at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock and similar projects at VA hospitals nationwide.

The "award" spotlights a government agency that was particularly wasteful with taxpayer dollars in the previous year. The office of inspector general last week released a report criticizing the Little Rock VA hospital's solar panel project, which is four years behind schedule and expected to go $1.5 million over budget.

"The OIG report does little to instill confidence in VA's ability to effectively manage construction projects," Hill wrote in a letter to VA Secretary Bob McDonald. "Whether it is a project as complex as hospital construction or one as simple as the proper installation of solar panels, VA continues to waste large amounts of taxpayer funds as a result of its own ineptitude."

The VA has spent more than $400 million on solar panels since 2010 under the Green Management Program. However, last week's report, which was requested by Hill and U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Rogers, discovered that of 15 solar projects awarded from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2013, only two had been completed by March. The projects, on average, took two years longer than initially planned.

In Little Rock, the solar panels were installed but never activated because they did not meet electric utility Entergy's system requirements. The panels were disassembled to clear room for a new parking garage, and officials expect the panels to be reassembled and activated atop the garage in January.

Former U.S. Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., introduced the Golden Fleece Award in 1975 to highlight frivolous government spending on a monthly basis.

The award gained popularity in the U.S. Senate, and former U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., remarked that it was "as much a part of the Senate as quorum calls and filibuster."

The Golden Fleece later fell out of popularity, but Hill reintroduced the award last year, giving it to the VA for solar project problems at the Little Rock facility.

Metro on 08/11/2016