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By Chuck Ross

The director of the Philadelphia regional VA hospital was paid $288,000 in “relocation payments” to move the 140 miles from Washington D.C. to her new home last year.

Diana Rubens was tapped last June to take over the Philadelphia hospital, which is one of many currently being investigated over claims that it placed veterans on unauthorized wait-lists.

Rubens, who previously served as the D.C.-based deputy undersecretary for field operations, where she oversaw 57 regional hospitals and four area offices, was brought in to help fix the embattled Philadelphia facility.

A breakdown of Rubens’ “relocation payments” was not immediately available, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, but a VA spokesman said that there was nothing inappropriate with the spending.

Federal regulations allow for the reimbursement of relocation expenses including the “costs of house-hunting, moving, terminating leases, and a per-diem rate for meals and temporary housing for an employee and his or her family,” the spokesman said.

But that hefty repayment is nearly 160 percent of what Rubens earned in base pay all of last year, raising questions over what exactly that money could have gone towards.

Rubens was paid more than $181,000 in 2014, according to the website FedSmith.com, which maintains a database of federal employee compensation.

“The government shouldn’t be in the business of doling out hundreds of thousands in cash to extremely well-compensated executives just to move less than three hours down the road,” Florida U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, told the Inquirer.

“For VA to pay such an outrageous amount in relocation expenses at a time when the department is continually telling Congress and taxpayers it needs more money raises questions about VA’s commitment to fiscal responsibility, transparency and true reform.”

Rubens has been mentioned before in articles criticizing other money she’s been paid by the VA. According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, in 2011, she received a bonus of more than $23,000 even though patient backlogs — one area Rubens was in charge of managing — increased by 300,000.

The Washington Examiner reported last year that Rubens received more than $97,000 in bonuses between 2007 and 2011 even though the average time to process veterans’ claims doubled to 325 days on her watch. The ratio of backlogged cases nearly doubled as well, from 37 percent in 2009 to 71 percent in 2013.

Are we also then ASSUMING that those you'd like to compare them to in the private sector share the SAME problems in regard to OUTRAGEOUS wait times and falsified record keeping? I'm going to assume you are currently or have been a Federal employee....

And if she is being moved due to performance issues it should be zero.

And it shouldn't be a one to one relationship in that government employees get paid the same or more is private sector employees because there are trade-offs to working for either

There should be some sort of basis for relativity though other than the willy-nilly I don't like them so they shouldn't get this that or the other

I've seen studies both ways z.

You are right in the stability thing but some/many trade for that and take less pay.

SES is a great example. Look at their top pay cap and compare that to private sector for similar positions. Then consider they are not GS employees and serve at the pleasure of the administrator.

I'm not drawing any conclusions I'm just saying actually look at things and then draw your own conclusions

I wasn't clear and can't edit after re-reading your latest post Z I agree with that for the most part. In the rarefied air of the senior executive service it is questionable however compared to General service workers

Of course I'm right.....jesus.

This drives me nuts. I was rated at 30% disability, but I have never set foot in a VA hospital since I retired.

I was rated for my knees and both shoulders, one of which I have since had surgery on, and the other has had cortisone shots.

I receive a check each month for $455 for that 30% rating... which they promptly remove from my retirement check because of concurrent receipt. You see... I must have a rating of 50% or higher in order to receive both. Something NO OTHER government entity has to deal with, except the military.

http://tinyurl.com/q5furmp

Soooo... what a lot of retirees are doing is going back to the VA and complaining about anything and everything until they are rated 50% or more... so they can get both (as they fu**ing deserve to). So if the VA would just pay us both, no matter where we are rated, they'd probably save a lot of time and money.

We try darn hard to take care of the veterans. We find them as many wars in the desert as we possibly can find.

As a veteran myself and a family record of having at least 1 family member serve each generation back to the civil war. I carried 2 caskets of close friends from a friendly fire death. Came close myself once. Can not listen to taps I have to leave. Its like my brother or sister is dying.
It is appalling the way any veteran is treated by congress and potus. But, we keep reelecting them.Not saying much about the senate I haven't been following. But the interesting thing is if you ask any veteran if they would serve again you don't hear many no's.
America may have a lot wrong with it. But, I never want to live anywhere else.

slow down Gene...ask him which side of the Civil War...










j/k Blue guy
that's how we roll.


but da North, right?

I was just kidding with ya.

Frank

Is he an octogenarian?

NP frank