REWARD FOR SCREWING UP A MAJOR VA HOSPITAL? PLUSH JOB, FREE HOUSE IN THE PHILIPPINES: “Rima Nelson disappeared from public view after the St. Louis Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital she managed potentially exposed 1,800 patients to HIV, was closed twice for serious medical safety issues and ranked dead last in patient satisfaction,” reports the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group’s Luke Rosiak.

Nelson wasn’t fired, she was transferred to the Philippines capital of Manila to run VA’s only foreign facility. It’s a small staff that provides outpatient care to the few remaining U.S. and Filipino WWII veterans. She kept her $160,ooo a year salary and lives in a government-provided condo in a country in which the average person makes about $2,500 annually.

Nelson is just one of nearly 100 highly paid VA executives the department has transferred three or more times in eight years, often leaving management dysfunction and chaos behind. The reality of the federal government’s workforce is that it’s easier and less time-consuming to transfer poor performers than to fire them. And VA isn’t the only federal department that does it; the problem is government-wide.