“Summary – The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) received allegations that a current VA employee (VA Employee 1) and the employee’s spouse, a former (retired) VA employee (Former VA Employee 1), improperly released VA procurement information. The complainant was an employee of a contractor doing business with VA (Contractor 1). Former VA Employee 1 retired from VA in October 2017 and began working for a small consulting company (Contractor 2). In the fall of 2017, VA issued a Request for Information (RFI) as part of an acquisition process for the VA STOP Fraud, Waste, and Abuse (FWA) initiative.1 The VA Improper Payments Remediation and Oversight (IPRO) Office developed criteria and ranked plans from 37 respondents to the RFI. Contractor 2 did not respond to the RFI. Former VA Employee 1 allegedly obtained the rankings for the 37 companies and approached at least two responding companies. Former VA Employee 1 then allegedly suggested to those companies that because of his/her knowledge of VA, Contractor 2 was well positioned to partner with them to win future contracts related to the VA STOP FWA initiative. In the meantime, VA senior leaders canceled the acquisition process when they realized other VA offices were pursuing the same goal. The OIG determined that the complainant’s information was hearsay and there was no direct evidence…”
Source: Alleged Improper Release of Procurement Information – May 1, 2019. VA OIG.
