WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge has overturned a decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs to demote a senior official accused of manipulating the agency’s hiring system for her own gain.
The VA demoted Kimberly Graves, director of a St. Paul, Minnesota, regional office for the Veterans Benefits Administration last month. The VA’s acting inspector general said Graves and another senior executive, Diana Rubens, forced lower-ranking managers to accept job transfers and then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their senior-level pay while reducing their responsibilities.
An administrative judge reversed Graves’ demotion on Friday, saying that higher-ranking officials knew about her plans and did nothing to stop them.
Judge Michele Szary Schroeder said penalizing Graves was inconsistent with the agency’s failure to discipline the higher ranking officials, particularly Danny Pummill, a top VBA official in Washington who was aware of the actions of both Graves and Rubens in stepping into vacancies they helped create.
“If no one in her chain (of command) said, ‘Wait, this will not look right’ when they approved her reassignment, how can a penalty be imposed against Ms. Graves for not saying that,” Schroeder wrote in a 41-page opinion on behalf of the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency that reviews personnel actions in the executive branch.
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called the judge’s ruling “a twist of tragic comedy.”
VA’s attempt to discipline Graves “was undone by its refusal to discipline other employees involved in this scandal,” Miller said. “By now there should be no doubt whatsoever that our federal civil service system is in need of drastic reform.”
Graves earned $173,949 as leader of the St. Paul VBA office, where she has worked since 2014 after transferring herself to the post from her previous job as director of the agency’s 14-state North Atlantic region.
She and Rubens have been under investigation for obtaining more than $400,000 combined in questionable moving expenses under a VA relocation program that has since been suspended.
Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., a member of the House veterans panel, called the ruling in favor of Graves “ridiculous” and said lawmakers “cannot let up in pushing for fundamental change that puts service to veterans above all else.”
Rubens also has appealed her demotion. A decision is expected as soon as Monday.
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