ms. ruell, you are recognized for five minutes. >> my name is kristen ruell and i have worked for the departmentof veterans affairs. i work at the philadelphia regional office an authorization director. i poses a law degree. mr. chairman, community members, veterans and guest, i have been identified as a whistle blower. i started reporting glitches in the vet system, the system responsible for paying out va benefits since july of 2010. i discussed what i saw as mismanagement at the filled office and raised issues but not limited to the improper sledding of mail, beneficiary receiving inappropriate payments, data manipulate and other various misreadings of the law. i have been targed by the the va despite the fact aig confirmed these reflections. the va's problem with a result of managers who have the power to and continue to ruin people's lives. i can speak from experience. i do not believe in manipulate the data while harming the veterans and survivors. the va listed fast letter 2010 and a simple reading established the claims would be few and far between and to qualify for a new data claim, ra

ms. ruell, you are recognized for five minutes. >> my name is kristen ruell and i have worked for the department of veterans affairs. i work at the philadelphia regional office an authorization director. i poses a law degree. mr. chairman, community members, veterans and guest, i have been identified as a whistle blower. i started reporting glitches in the vet system, the system responsible for paying out va benefits since july of 2010. i discussed what i saw as mismanagement at the filled office and raised issues but not limited to the improper sledding of mail, beneficiary receiving inappropriate payments, data manipulate and other various misreadings of the law. i have been targed by the the va despite the fact aig confirmed these reflections. the va's problem with a result of managers who have the power to and continue to ruin people's lives. i can speak from experience. i do not believe in manipulate the data while harming the veterans and survivors. the va listed fast letter 2010 and a simple reading established the claims would be few and far between and to qualify for a new data claim, r

ms. kristen ruell, you gave some very specific examples about how tough it is to go into work every day when things like that happen to you. we talked about your car being damaged and the other things that occurred. one question that i have, the manner in which all of you were retaliated against, what -- are you members of the union? will was the role of the union in terms of protecting the employees, your specific case, let me start with mr. javier soto. what recourse did you have? i assume your remember. >> yes. >> okay. essentially we are still trying to figure out what happened. what i believe is that retaliation for the whistleblowing we have problems with claim processing. there is no other way to address them. we found ourselves in that strange this situation where we have to rely on the union to help. that brought conflict. >> server. >> well, i am actually the president of local 520. and we have been -- as a matter of fact, in june of 2012 we had a rally to bring attention to what was going on. the va police department had cameras and video trying to intimidate us so -- >> sure. in

ms. ruell, you are recognized for five minutes. >> my name is kristen ruell and i have worked for the departmentof veterans affairs. i work at the philadelphia regional office an authorization director. i poses a law degree. mr. chairman, community members, veterans and guest, i have been identified as a whistle blower. i started reporting glitches in the vet system, the system responsible for paying out va benefits since july of 2010. i discussed what i saw as mismanagement at the filled office and raised issues but not limited to the improper sledding of mail, beneficiary receiving inappropriate payments, data manipulate and other various misreadings of the law. i have been targed by the the va despite the fact aig confirmed these reflections. the va's problem with a result of managers who have the power to and continue to ruin people's lives. i can speak from experience. i do not believe in manipulate the data while harming the veterans and survivors. the va listed fast letter 2010 and a simple reading established the claims would be few and far between and to qualify for a new data claim, ra

ms. halliday said you have taken on a tough job at the va. you were here earlier when kristen ruell was giving the testimony by flawed data and duplicate payments within the va and she was was claiming there were duplicate payments and her manager at the regional office for claiming that wasn't the case. would you say now couple of years later that she was more correct than the managers at the philadelphia va office on that question? >> congressman there are duplicate duplicate payments my can tell you we to 10,000 pension claims a month and about 64 of them are duplicate. >> she was calling out a problem that she saw and she deals with these issues every day. she was identifying a problem and she didn't think upper management was concerned about it or understood or was even involved in it. >> congressman i can play the management at the office did raise the issue to us and did have discussion with the pension business line leadership. i think there has been a conversation but i appreciate the situation she found herself in. >> i appreciate you have indicated to this committee and m

kristen ruell. manipulating where it was a backlog in what was not. and this is the dilemma we erin. >> i hear you, congressman. i heard ms. roe was well. i heard her back when she first brought up the issue. i responded quickly. i will tell you it -- i told her, but shame on us are not telling her better. we change processes because of what she originally told me in an e-mail. fundamentally we're moving pension into an advanced scanning operation. two of the pension management centers have already done that. the last one was scheduled to do it in early fall. she has made a huge impact by raising that issue of that concern. i have processes -- i have adjusted processes as a result. >> one big process, and i think we all agree. we talk about this in the committee. we talk about stakeholder input. your stakeholders are the people on that panel before you. that really needs to be addressed. >> congressman, i will tell you what i do today. i will also tell you i have a high degree of respect for mr. ron robinson to the point where i was one of the people when i first showed up that he started e-mailing. i started asking questions about what

kristen ruell. manipulating where it was a backlog in what was not. and this is the dilemma we erin. >> i hear you, congressman. i heard ms. roe was well. i heard her back when she first brought up the issue. i responded quickly. i will tell you it -- i told her, but shame on us are not telling her better. we change processes because of what she originally told me in an e-mail. fundamentally we're moving pension into an advanced scanning operation. two of the pension management centers have already done that. the last one was scheduled to do it in early fall. she has made a huge impact by raising that issue of that concern. i have processes -- i have adjusted processes as a result. >> one big process, and i think we all agree. we talk about this in the committee. we talk about stakeholder input. your stakeholders are the people on that panel before you. that really needs to be addressed. >> congressman, i will tell you what i do today. i will also tell you i have a high degree of respect for mr. ron robinson to the point where i was one of the people when i first showed up that he started e-mailing. i started asking questions about what