In the years following the Civil War, families of soldiers for both the Union and the Confederacy were left to pick up the pieces after our nation's inner conflict, which pitted brother against brother. In the aftermath of the reunification of the United States, the records for all veterans were sent to the offices of the War Department, where they were highly disorganized, with many simply being lost or misplaced.
It took many months, and in some cases years, for requests for those records—which were key for families getting death benefits from the government—out of storage. This episode stands as a not-so-shining example of a government agency being so vast, so byzantine and incompetent, that it can't even handle key functions with due dispatch.
While the records all varied in size, one element made them all look alike. They were all bound in red tape, which is where the Americanized use of the term originated.
So, back to 2015. What did the VA recently do when it was alerted to the fact that some of its middle managers may have cut some legal corners when getting money to build its claim processing system? It unraveled the red tape, it opened up the books, it interviewed witnesses and it uncovered the truth. Then, the agency took all that information and published it in a report for the public to review.
Now, according to the law, that's precisely the way things are supposed to work. The Office of the Inspector General set up a hotline so that improprieties can be investigated and exposed. That, however, does not mean anyone expects it to work that way. Most of the time when we hear about government screw-ups or malfeasance, it's from a reporter or whistleblowers who go to the press, because they can't seem to get anyone in authority to listen.
But that didn't happen this time. The IG's hotline received the call, and from that moment on, those behind the investigation followed the rules to get to the bottom of the complaint. And though it could be perceived that the investigation was managed properly because those in power might have been afraid of having the whistle blown on them, the report that was issued did not read like an aborted cover-up.
In this case, it did not feel like someone was offering up a sacrificial lamb to take the fall for a middle manager gone rogue. It felt like the VA took the call, treated it with the proper gravity and executed an investigation that will see the money returned, the system fixed and those responsible punished.
And that's the way it's supposed to work, without the red tape.