VA construction exec steps down amid investigation

The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced that the official in charge of construction nationwide had resigned amid an internal investigation into delays and huge cost overruns to build a hospital in a Denver suburb.

“Effective today, Glenn Haggstrom, Principal Executive Director of the Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction (OALC), is no longer an employee of VA,” the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

Haggstrom “retired” in the “midst of an investigation, initiated by VA, into delays and cost overruns associated with the design and construction of the medical center in Aurora. Haggstrom had recently been relieved of any decision-making in the Office of Construction and Facilities Management,” the statement said.

The news came around a week after the VA announced it would cost $1.73 billion to build a proposed 184-bed replacement facility in the suburb of Aurora, Colo., which has been in the works for more than 10 years.

The cost estimate — based on information developed by the Army Corps of Engineers — was more than five times the facility’s initial $328 million price tag. 

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee whose district includes the Aurora facility, decried Haggstrom’s $64,000 in bonuses since 2007 despite potentially billions in cost overruns at construction sites around the country.

“He should have been fired years ago and his ill-gotten bonuses should be rescinded,” he said in a statement. “Everyone knew back in April 2013 that VA executives were incompetently managing this project and I have been fighting for serious reforms ever since. This personnel move is years late and billions of dollars in cost overruns short. The VA needs major reform and I will continue to fight for them.”

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), who previously called for Haggstrom’s dismissal, said that, while he “may have tried to do a good job at VA, he certainly did not succeed.”

“What’s most disappointing about this situation, however, is that Haggstrom left on his own terms — with a lifetime pension — even though any reasonable person would conclude that he should have been fired years ago,” he said.

Miller said more “housecleaning will surely be needed if the department is to ever get its construction affairs in order.” 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs panel, said Haggstrom’s resignation doesn’t let the department off the hook over the Aurora facility. 

The agency “must take swift action to hold those responsible accountable for any mismanagement or inappropriate actions once the investigation has been completed,” he said in a statement. “The cost overruns and construction delays in Denver are appalling.”