Paul Sullivan, the director of advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense and a VA critic, said that whatever the VA decides to do about the program, it should decide it quickly.  "This is research that could help our wounded troops," Sullivan said, "and they're the ones who are hurt by this delay." 

August 3, 2008, Austin, Texas - A Department of Veterans Affairs investigation has partially substantiated allegations of waste and mismanagement in a VA brain-research program housed at the University of Texas.

Leaders at the VA's Central Texas branch made contracting mistakes that cost possibly hundreds of thousands of research dollars, according to the VA's Office of the Inspector General. The investigators also concluded that VA officials moved too slowly when apprised of concerns by Dr. Robert Van Boven, who oversees the $6 million research program.

But the investigators also dispute the broadest of Van Boven's allegations, such as cronyism among his superiors. And while the report does not tally total dollar amounts, it indicates VA superiors misspent far less than the $1.2 million Van Boven says they did.

The investigation came at the request of Van Boven, who began making complaints shortly after taking over in July 2007 as the head of a brain-injury research program housed at UT's J.J. Pickle Research Campus. The program uses a giant scanner to perform cutting-edge research into brain injuries among returning troops.

The program has been suspended for six months amid several investigations and reviews, including the one just released.

Bruce Gordon, the director of the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, said that the investigators' conclusions are an "appropriate representation of the issues and provided excellent guidance for improvement of VA research efforts." Their recommendations, he wrote in response to e-mail questions, are already being implemented.

Van Boven said the report vindicates his concerns.

"I'm grateful the (investigators) substantiated that there was waste and mismanagement," Van Boven said. But he said the investigators didn't look thoroughly enough into the areas where they disagreed with him.

One of the conclusions of the inspector general's report was that a consultant made more than $100,000 at the brain-imaging center while working without a contract. The spoken agreement violated government spending policy, according to the investigators, and the lack of documentation made it impossible to determine whether the contractor defrauded the government, as Van Boven alleges.

Gordon said there are no other contractors working for the Central Texas VA without a contract.

The report also found that the VA misread a contract to rent the UT brain scanner, and unnecessarily paid for scanner time for almost a year. The VA paid well over $100,000 in scanner time it mistakenly thought it was obligated to buy, the report says.

But then the report begins to contradict Van Boven.

It found some of the excess purchased scanner time was not necessarily wasted because it was used by another VA researcher, Dr. Kevin Carlin. The longtime Air Force endocrinologist studied brain patterns associated with diabetic retinopathy, a condition that causes some diabetics to gradually go blind.

Van Boven alleges that Carlin was unqualified to use the scanner and secured its use through friendships with VA leaders.

But the report found Van Boven's charge to be largely inaccurate, noting the $6 million grant could be used for all manner of brain research.

"Despite being an inexperienced researcher," the report states, Carlin "has had a distinguished career and has a long-standing interest in biomedical research."

The report does not decide whether the research was scientifically worthwhile. Five outside experts brought in by Van Boven panned Carlin's work, and the report chides Carlin's superiors for not requiring him to collect more data.

Van Boven has several other complaints not addressed by the report, including his belief that his research was suspended as part of a larger effort to punish him for speaking out. The White House's Office of Special Counsel is investigating the claim.

Gordon denied the allegation and wrote that the program was suspended during a standard review process that was delayed while the inspector general's office conducted its investigation.

Paul Sullivan, the director of advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense and a VA critic, said that whatever the VA decides to do about the program, it should decide it quickly. "This is research that could help our wounded troops," Sullivan said, "and they're the ones who are hurt by this delay."

Marty Toohey, mtoohey@statesman.com 512-445-3673