Administrative Investigation – Misuse of Official Time and Failure to Properly Supervise, Oklahoma City VA Health Care System

The Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General (OIG), issued the Administrative Investigation – Misuse of Official Time and Failure to Properly Supervise, Oklahoma City VA Health Care System (Report No. 17-00253-267). You may view and download this report by clicking on the report title above.

Report Summary: The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) Administrative Investigations Division received an allegation that a former (since removed) Research Investigator (subject employee) at the Oklahoma City VA Health Care System did not show up for work at VA and was instead working at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) during his official VA duty hours.  Further, Philip Comp, MD, PhD, former (now retired) Associate Chief of Staff for Research, allegedly improperly approved the subject employee’s pay for the time he was absent from VA.  We found that, between April 2014 and September 2016, the subject employee teleworked without authorization for 157 hours, collected dual compensation from VA and JHU for 1,374 hours, and misused his official time when he received VA pay for 441 hours while traveling and giving lectures during his VA duty hours that were not VA sponsored.  We further found that Dr. Comp failed in his supervisory responsibilities by being unaware of the subject employee’s attendance, yet certifying the subject employee’s subsidiary timecards as well as VA’s electronic time and attendance system for hours he was not present at the facility and/or did not work.  We referred the dual compensation matter to the Western District of Oklahoma United States Attorney’s Office.  They reviewed the evidence, declined to proceed with criminal charges, and advised OIG to proceed with the matter administratively.  The subject employee’s use of unauthorized telework, misuse of official time, dual compensation, and falsely claimed hours created a cost to VA of $102,542.

Please use either Adobe Acrobat Reader version 11 or equivalent PDF reader software to open and view our reports.  Adobe Acrobat Reader may be obtained free of charge from Adobe's website.  Those with text-only or adaptive browsers may want to review Adobe’s accessibility guide.  (Our disclaimer for these software products)