6 Past, Present VA Workers May Face Conflict Charges

Seventy-eight current and former Veterans Administration employees may have violated federal criminal statutes, VA regulations or policies by accepting money from pharmaceutical firms, the VA announced Friday.

Conflict-of-interest cases involving five former employees and one current employee unearthed in an internal investigation by the VA’s Office of Inspector General have been turned over to the Justice Department for possible prosecution, a statement from the VA said.

Names Withheld

The VA did not reveal the names of those six or the amounts of money involved.

The payments were made between Jan. 1, 1981, and December, 1985, by five pharmaceutical suppliers: Ciba-Geigy Corp., Eli Lilly & Co., Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals Inc., Merck-Sharp & Dohme and Abbott Laboratories, the VA said. The five firms were subpoenaed for the information.

The investigation stems from an earlier probe of the pharmaceutical firm Smith, Kline and French, which covered the years 1979 to 1984. In February, the inspector general found that VA physicians and other employees accepted about $750,000 in gratuities and payments from the company. Of the 199 employees investigated, 33 faced disciplinary actions.

In the current probe, the records showed that 932 current and former VA employees had accepted honoraria, grants and gratuities from the five firms as well as direct funding of meetings and symposia by the firms.

Action Due on 72 Cases

The inspector general initiated 165 individual investigations and found that 87 did not warrant further action, the VA said. Of the remaining 78 cases, 72 have been forwarded to the VA’s Department of Medicine and Surgery for review and appropriate action in accordance with federal personnel regulations.

The office did not pursue the other 767 cases because none merited further investigation based on the earlier Smith, Kline and French probe experience and the dollar amounts involved.

Since the 1984 investigation, the Department of Medicine and Surgery made successful efforts to clarify VA policy concerning business dealings with private firms, VA Inspector General Frank S. Sato said.