Came out few weeks ago. Didn't see a post about it

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Louisiana Veterans Affairs mishandled money, lied about patients: audit

The former head of Louisiana's Veterans Affairs Department mismanaged money, covered up crimes at veterans' homes and lied about his military background, according to a scathing report released Monday (Feb. 1) by the state's legislative auditor and inspector general.

The report accused former Secretary David LaCerte of having "engaged in questionable organizational, hiring, and pay practices that appear to have contributed to an environment of little accountability."

LaCerte's lawyer, Jarrett Ambeau, ripped the report in a written response as an unfounded, vicious and targeted attack.

"The Joint Investigation Report's findings are patently false, blatant character assassination and appear to be a calculated attack on the integrity and credibility of former Veterans Affairs Secretary, Mr. David LaCerte," Ambeau wrote.

LaCerte abruptly resigned Oct. 8, at the height of the investigation. The interim secretary, Thomas Enright Jr., told legislative auditors in a Jan. 8 letter that he had enacted some of their recommended changes.

Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera sent copies of the audit to Attorney General Jeff Landry and the East Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office. The state inspector general's investigation is continuing, according to the report.

Much of the investigation's findings focused on evidence of misspent money from 2013 until LaCerte left office.

It accused LaCerte of paying $44,128 in consulting fees to a company owned by two of his law school classmates between January 2014 and September 2015 without ever signing a contract with them. The inspector general is still investigating the contract.

Ambeau said that the arrangement saved taxpayers money and had to be done because of the tight time frame to secure funding to improve the Northeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery in Rayville.

In another case, the report says LaCerte directed staff to buy a Ford Expedition using a more than $27,000 from a federal grant meant for the Southeast Louisiana Veterans' Cemetery in Slidell. That SUV was then used to ferry LaCerte around the state, according to the report.

Ambeau argued that the grant allowed for equipment purchases and that department vehicles are often pooled at headquarters so that low-mileage vehicles are used for longer trips.

Investigators found department employees were reimbursed almost $20,000 in travel expenses that weren't properly authorized or over the capped limit. The report accused LaCerte of being improperly reimbursed $4,800 for expenses incurred during 11 trips between February 2013 and September 2015.

The report also accused one department employee of stealing from a resident in a veterans home and another of lying on medical records when a resident died after suffering from a fall. Investigators discovered that 34 incident reports had been deleted from the system while another 82 duplicate reports were also improperly discarded.

Beyond the specific accusations, investigators also found that the department had been mismanaged for years, leading to imbalances in how much some parishes paid for veterans services.

"Because (the veterans affairs department) is not using actual expenditures and staffing for each parish to determine how much to charge each parish, some parishes are paying too much for services, and others are not paying enough," the report stated.

Perhaps the most revealing discovery, according to the report, was LaCerte's apparent attempt to keep tabs on management after learning he would not be permanently appointed to the department's top job. He had been appointed interim secretary in 2013, but after learning he would be sent back to his former job as deputy secretary, he reconfigured the organizational chart to have four posts that would have reported to the secretary instead report to him once he returned to his former office.

LaCerte also kept the interim secretary's $130,000 annual salary rather than return to the deputy secretary's salary of $85,000, according to the report.

Investigators also found incongruities in LaCerte's claims that he had fought in Afghanistan shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and had interrogated Taliban fighters. Questions about his service record had led the department to remove his biography from its website.

"Finally, attacks on Secretary LaCerte's service record are below the standard for a public office in the state of Louisiana and will not be given the dignity of a response herein," Ambeau wrote. "Secretary LaCerte served his country honorably and his service record speaks for itself."

This post was edited on 2/17/16 at 7:32 pm