Probe: Texas VA lab spent $3M, no veterans tested

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON – Three years ago, the Department of Veterans Affairs established a laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin with high expectations that it would conduct state-of-the art research into combat-related brain injuries. Last month, the VA announced it was moving the facility, after spending more than $3 million without testing a single veteran with traumatic brain injury.

The decision follows a two-year battle between the VA and the former director of the Brain Injury and Recovery Laboratory, who has accused his superiors of fraud, mismanagement and wasting taxpayer money.

The department is reopening the lab at a VA hospital in Waco and vows the work will progress at the new location, but veterans groups want assurances the new facility will have the equipment and expertise to conduct first-class research.

“Two years without any veterans being tested and millions of dollars apparently being spent is very frustrating,” said Paul Sullivan, head of Veterans for Common Sense, an advocacy group that rallied in Austin to protest the move.

The uproar has sparked a congressional inquiry, an investigation by the federal Office of Special Counsel and several internal investigations.

The laboratory was established by a $6.3 million VA grant awarded in 2003 in collaboration with the University of Texas, which houses a state-of-the-art brain scanner. Neurosurgeon Robert Van Boven was hired as program director in 2007. Within months, he complained that $1.2 million of the grant money had been wasted before his arrival, and he later alleged that superiors would not investigate his claims.

An investigation by the VA Office of Inspector General last year “partially substantiated” the allegation of mismanagement of department funds.

The investigation neither substantiated nor refuted alleged use of equipment for research of questionable scientific merit but did find “multiple deficiencies” in protocols.

A subsequent investigation by the Office of Research Oversight for the Veterans Health Administration found that the program’s “research activities lacked appropriate administrative supervision.”

A team from the House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on oversight and investigations visited Texas last month to look into the allegations and interview VA officials.