Its Official: VA Secretary Confirms VA Has Lost Trust of Public and Vets

The Department of Veterans Affairs has lost the trust of veterans and the American people as a

result of widespread treatment delays for people seeking health care and falsified records to cover up those delays, Acting Secretary Sloan Gibson said Wednesday.

The Secretary said the VA has created an environment where workers are afraid to raise concerns or offer suggestions for fear of retaliation and has failed to hold employees accountable for wrongdoing or negligence.

The agency also has devoted too many resources to meeting performance metrics -- such as prompt scheduling of patient appointments -- that were subject to manipulation and may not accurately reflect quality of care, Gibson said.

"As a consequence of all these failures, the trust that is the foundation of all we do -- the trust of the veterans we serve and the trust of the American people and their elected representatives --has eroded," Gibson told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

From my sixtyeight years of toil and life experiences, trust rebuilt is never as strong as trust unbroken.