The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded bonuses to its employees for their 'excellent' performance, despite the extensive backlog benefits claims, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
More than two-thirds of VA claims officers collected bonuses that totaled to $5.5 million in 2011. That same year the number of backlogged benefit claims ballooned to 155 percent.
According to the Post:
The more complex claims were often set aside by workers so they could keep their jobs, meet performance standards or, in some cases, collect extra pay, said VA claims processors and union representatives. Those claims now make up much of the VA’s widely scrutinized disability claims backlog, defined by the agency as claims pending more than 125 days.
"At the beginning of the month . . . I’d try to work my really easy stuff so I could get my numbers up," said Renee Cotter, a union steward for the Reno, Nev., local of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
The VA told the Post that the bonuses were justified because of the increased workload for VA employees.