Veterans Affairs: Obama Will Tap Former Procter & Gamble Head Bob McDonald To Head VA

The Obama administration is bringing in a former chief executive and army veteran to take over the Veterans Affairs department, hoping his management skills and experience will help clean up an agency rife with scandal.

President Obama plans to nominate Bob McDonald, an Army veteran and former chief executive of The Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE:PG), as next secretary of veterans affairs, a senior official told Reuters. If the Senate confirms, McDonald will be helping repair the Veterans Administration following a nationwide scandal about the quality of care delivered to veterans at the facilities.

McDonald may seen like an unlikely choice, but Bob Wallace, executive director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, told the Wall Street Journal that “right now, they need someone with management skills.”

“He comes with the credentials they need at this time: management expertise and someone who had made a living making tough decisions,” Wallace added.

Just last week, White House officials reported to Obama that the entire department requires a massive overhaul.

“A corrosive culture has led to personnel problems across the Department that are seriously impacting morale and by extension, the timeliness of health care,” the report says, according to Politico.

“The problems inherent within an agency with an extensive field structure are exacerbated by poor management and communication structures, distrust between some VA employees and management, a history of retaliation toward employees raising issues, and a lack of accountability across all grade levels.”