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Today, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) awarded the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with its sixth Golden Fleece for missing yet another deadline the ongoing solar panel construction debacle at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock.

VA’s continued mismanagement of taxpayer dollars resulted in this month’s version of the Golden Fleece Award being dubbed a “Platinum Fleece.” This is the first ever “Platinum Fleece” given out by Congressman Hill.

Earlier this week, Senator John Boozman (AR) and Congressman Hill sent a letter to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary David Shulkin asking him to “swiftly resolve” the construction delays in Little Rock. The letter was in response to VA missing the deadline to activate the solar panels given in last year’s VAOIG report. VA officials recently indicated April of this year would be the earliest construction would be finished.

“I am not intentionally picking on VA by continuously giving them this award, but when a situation carries on for this long without a resolution, and it happens at your local VA facility, there is an obligation to keep shining a lot on the problem,” said Hill. “I am hopeful that a new secretary means a new attitude and culture at VA where veterans are the number one priority and failure is no longer acceptable.”

The construction in Little Rock took four years longer than expected and increased the price tag on the project by $1.5 million. The project vendor SunWize, now Eco Clean Solar, Inc., was awarded 25 solar projects by VA, receiving over $23 million in 2012 alone before being placed in receivership in October 2015.

“Mismanagement is the easiest failure of government to fix. Our letter this week, and now the platinum fleece aren’t poking fun at the problem, they are an attempt to remind the new secretary of the construction management problems at VA facilities across the country, and that it’s his responsibility as a steward of taxpayer money to make sure large portions of VA’s budget aren’t wasted,” said Hill. 

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