It looks like the on-again-off-again, move-the-site plan to build a new VA health care facility in Butler is not the only construction headache for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

A mismanaged hospital project near Denver has been making national headlines in recent weeks. The first fact that jumps out of the Denver story is that the new VA hospital complex in Aurora, Colorado is expected to cost $1.73 billion, which is a figure three times higher than the estimate that VA officials provided to Congress last year. The cost of the building project tripled in a year? How can that happen?

For many taxpayers, this is just another example of how things often go in Washington, D.C., where they are spending OPM — other people’s money.

Another thought that comes up when reading about the Denver VA building fiasco is that this could be a bait-and-switch type scam. The same sort of thing seems to happen with military spending when a Pentagon cost estimate for a new jet or new battleship is set at $500 million or $1 billion, but two years into a five year construction project, the cost suddenly doubles. By that time, though, defense contractors and members of Congress with defense contractor jobs in their district, argue it’s too late to scrap the project. They say that because of the huge sunk costs, the project must go forward, no matter how much it costs taxpayers.

In the case of the VA hospital complex in Aurora, construction was temporarily halted earlier this month when the money ran out. But the U.S. House of Representatives agreed last week to raise the spending cap by $100 million, which allows construction to proceed — but for only three weeks. That $100 million boost to the spending cap goes on top of an $800 million spending cap that Congress earlier put on the project as cost estimates began to balloon past early targets.

Taxpayers have to wonder, is anyone watching out for their interests? Does anyone in the VA care about costs? Are the cost overruns due to imcompetence, indifference or a scam with kickbacks to a developer?

Congress is, so far at least, talking tough. Instead of just authorizing more money to keep the project going, Congress is telling VA officials they have to find the money in the VA’s budget.

The first solution offered by the VA was to raid the $5 billion fund that Congress set up to help resolve the long waiting times veterans faced that blew up into a full-blown scandal when it was learned that several VA hospitals were creating fake wait-list times to avoid congressional criticism, and earn bonuses. The $5 billion fund was to be used for hiring additional doctors at the VA and also for paying for heatlh care that veterans were allowed to receive at non-VA facilities if their wait time to see a VA doctor was excessively long.

The message from Congress is that veterans should not suffer due to VA incompetence managing the Colorado hospital construction project — and that the extra money to finish the $1.73 billion hospital complex should not add to the federal deficit.

One senator suggested tapping into the VA’s multimillion-dollar bonus budget, but VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson called such a suggestion a “lousy idea.” Really? Bonus funds should be not even be touched?

The cost-overrun mess in Denver is not the VA’s only construction embarrassment. There are major problems with VA projects in Orlando, Las Vegas and New Orleans. And so far, nobody is being held accountable for any of the mismanaged projects and massive cost overruns.

The apparent mismanagement, or at least missteps, surrounding the new VA health care facility in Butler seem to be part of a larger problem within the Department of Veterans Affairs. Taxpayers and veterans deserve better. Congress should demand accountability — and changes.