Accountability? VA Undersecretary Stepping Down.

by: Richard Allen Smith

Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 12:07:41 PM EST

WASHINGTON - Patrick W. Dunne, the Under Secretary for Benefits for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), today announced his resignation for early next year.  Dunne, who attained the rank of rear admiral while in the U.S. Navy, has been with VA since 2006.

As Under Secretary for Benefits since October 2008, Admiral Dunne has directed the administration of VA's disability compensation, pension, education, home loan guaranty, vocational rehabilitation and employment, and life insurance programs through a nationwide network of 57 regional offices, other special processing centers, and Veterans Benefits Administration headquarters.

Whether this guy is leaving for other opportunities, ready to retire after decades of government service, leaving after completing the transfer to a new Administration, or being forced out, I don't know. I hope he was asked to leave.

As the Undersecretary for Benefits, part of his mission has been the implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. We all remember how well that went.  

As a leader in any organization, you are ultimately the person responsible for everything that happens under your leadership. This is a concept we lived by every day while wearing the uniform, but doesn't always exist so explicitly in the civilian world. But Rear Admiral (Ret.) Dunne knows better.  

When the G.I. Bill implementation resulted in epic FAIL, Dunne was responsible. When Veterans received benefits letters which incorrectly informed them that they had the fatal disease ALS, Dunne was responsible. Any SNAFUs with VA benefits since Dunne was sworn in as Undersecretary in October of 2008 were ultimately his responsibility.

Additionally, If you were to research Dunne's bio, you'd also find that between August 2006 and his appointment as Undersecretary, Dunne served as Assistant Secretary for Policy and Planning.  Placing that in context, this was the period when VA was planning to implement the policies which would drive the administration of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. From start to finish, the utter failure of the Department of Veterans Affairs to administer education benefits to 21st century Veterans lies at the feet of Patrick W. Dunne.

Any one or two of the mishaps at the Veterans Benefits Administration could be attributed to a lowly incompetent staffer. But the exorbitant nature of repeated failure occurring under the incompetent leadership of Patrick Dunne can only be attributed to a leader who was derelict in correcting the deficiencies of the led. In my humble opinion, Dunne should have been canned for the G.I. Bill fiasco alone.

Veterans need to know that their benefits will be administered with the utmost care and competence. Service members and potential recruits need to have faith that when their service is complete, they will be taken care of.  Since August of 2006 when Patrick W. Dunne first became a senior leader at the Department of Veterans Affairs, we have been given no reason to be confident in his leadership. Without question, the departure of Patrick Dunne will be a giant leap in the effort to right the ship of a mismanaged VA that has spent decades in neglect.