ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997 TAG: 9702270034
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Veterans Affairs Department has demoted or forced out 12 top administrators in the past year because of charges of sexual harassment or mismanagement, the head of the agency said Wednesday.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown said that in light of a recent case involving the director of one VA medical center, he also is requiring that all such complaints be reviewed by himself or his undersecretaries.
``We are ahead of the issue on this. We are not covering up,'' Brown said during a budget hearing before a Senate Veterans Affairs subcommittee.
Brown was responding to questions raised by Sen. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark., who as a member of the House last year pushed for a General Accounting Office investigation of VA management.
The VA inspector general last year cited several cases of fiscal mismanagement, including in one case paying $26,000 for an office fish tank. Allegations of sexual harassment also were uncovered against a VA medical center director, who was demoted but kept his $106,000 annual salary, according to reports in the Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer-Times and the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.
Jerome Calhoun was transferred to the VA Medical Center at Bay Pines, Fla., despite allegations he harassed female employees while director of the Fayetteville, N.C., hospital since 1994. Calhoun has denied the charges.
In one case cited in the inspector general's November report, Calhoun is accused of reassigning a woman after she rejected his unwelcome advances, the newspaper said.
Calhoun made ``inappropriate comments of a sexual nature,'' the report said, even after she told him, ``Please don't do this to me.''
Witnesses said Calhoun began to criticize the woman's work, curse her and spread rumors about her, according to the report. After apologizing for one outburst, he told the woman, ``I really miss the days when if a woman was out of line you could just slap her around,'' the report said.
As a result of the report, Calhoun was sent to Bay Pines to take the job of ``special assistant to the director.'' He was demoted out of management after the case came to Brown's attention. Brown said he had not been aware of a settlement that allowed Calhoun to remain employed by the VA.
``We have a system of zero tolerance for sexual harassment in the VA,'' Brown told the Senate subcommittee. ``We take this issue seriously.''
As an example, he said the VA has in the past year forced seven managers into retirement because of charges of sexual harassment or mismanagement, demoted three, and prompted two to resign. He wouldn't name them.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB