A detective with the VA police department in south Florida, Detective Thomas Fiore, has come forward with tales of drug abuse, theft, and abuse and how he was instructed to stop investigating any of it:

When asked why he would risk his job and speak publicly, Detective Thomas Fiore considered the question carefully before answering.

“People are dying,” he finally said, “and there are so many things that are going on there that people need to know about.”

Fiore, a criminal investigator for the VA police department in South Florida, contacted CBS4 News hoping to shed light on what he considers a culture of cover-ups and bureaucratic neglect. Among his charges: Drug dealing on the hospital grounds is a daily occurrence.

“Anything from your standard prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet, and of course marijuana, cocaine, heroin, I’ve come across them all,” he explained.

Even inside the hospital, he says he was stopped from doing his job – investigating reports of missing drugs from the VA pharmacy. When the amount of a particular drug inside the pharmacy doesn’t match the amount that the pharmacy is supposed to have, a report, known as a “discrepancy report” is generated. Normally it was his job to investigate the reports to determine if they were the result of harmless mistakes or criminal activity. But all that changed, he said, about two years ago.

“I was instructed that I was to stop conducting investigations pertaining to controlled substance discrepancies,” he recalled.

He said he was personally told to stop investigating them by the hospital’s chief of staff, Dr. Vincent DeGennaro.

“I have no idea why,” he said. “He’s the chief of staff he doesn’t have to tell me why.”

 

Fiore goes on to report on surveillance cameras that don’t work on the grounds of the hospital.  And haven’t worked for four years:

Fiore was assigned the responsibility of conducting a “vulnerability assessment” of the VA facilities in South Florida. He noted the problem with the cameras back then. As a result of his report, he said the Miami VA was allocated money to improve security. He said he believes the amount was somewhere between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.

But he doesn’t know what happened to the money.

“I can tell you it wasn’t spent on cameras or any of the other recommendations that were made in that assessment,” he said, “because they still have yet to be corrected.”

Fiore also reported seeing instances of abuse of patients.  But rather than these episodes being dealt with through law enforcement, the VA system handles them administratively.  In other words, they move them to a different area in the hospital system.  Who cares if “caregivers” smack around our Veterans?  As long as things stayed quiet.   And bonuses were paid.

Then there’s the theft:

“Theft is rampant,” he said.

He estimates there are millions of dollars in theft every year from the Miami VA, everything from computers to medical equipment.

“We’re talking government property, we’re talking about things the taxpayers are buying,” he said.

One particular Veteran was demolished by the South Florida VA system.  As his mother asks:

“I trusted them to take care of him,” she said. “What help did they give him?”

No worries.  President “Mad as Hell” has promised he’ll get to the bottom of this!  As long as his television is working, that is.  As long as he’s not golfing or throwing baseballs like a 8 year old girl.

And Jay Carney is on the job!