Unjust rewards for VA leaders

Even in the absence of a SCATHING scandal that has embarrassed and deeply soiled the image of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, magnanimous bonuses awarded to top VA brass would still strike us as outrageous.

As we’ve argued often on this page, public- and private-sector functionaries appear to inhabit two completely different planets. On Planet Private, workers struggle with wage freezes, givebacks and heightened health-care concessions. On Planet Public, many enjoy lavish pay raises, luxury-loge benefits and routine bonus perks.

Bonuses

So revelations earlier this month that the VA gave a large majority of its executives bonuses totaling $2.7 million in 2013 are unsettling. But it becomes even more brazen when, as many allege, some of those bonus recipients were the same managers who ordered records falsified to make it look as if the agency was making strides in lessening patient wait times.

The months-long delays have been attributed to at least 20 deaths and are the subject of congressional investigations.

Although Congress acted with uncharacteristic speed to freeze any VA bonuses through 2016, that alone won’t put a fresh veneer of credibility on the tainted agency.

Those who had played any role whatsoever in the falsification of VA documents or other actions that delayed appointments for our nation’s veterans should be ordered to surrender any and all of their misbegotten cash.