Sunday’s Butler Eagle featured a story about the ongoing mess surrounding the construction of a new VA health care center here. The article reported that a federal judge had denied a bid protest from the development company that did not win the contract to build a new VA Butler Healthcare Center.

The Department of Veterans Affairs withdrew its original contract for a new health care center after it was learned that a principal in the company awarded the contract had been convicted of bribery and racketeering in 2013.

In December, the VA chose a new developer and a different locaton. The VA has refused to say why it switched to a new site in Center Township. The original site was a location along state Route 68 in Butler Township known as Deshon Woods. That location is adjacent to the current VA campus while the new site 1½ miles away, on farm land along Duffy Road in Center Township.

The VA has not answered the community’s questions why it chose the new site. The VA has also frustrated efforts by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly to get answers to that question and others.

Watching the confusion and questions surrounding the Butler project, the message seems to be that the VA is just not accountable — to anyone. It does not have to explain its decisions, even when those decisions have a major impact on the community — and when $100 million in taxpayers’ dollars will be spent.

But as bad as Butler’s VA mess is, it’s nothing compared to what’s been going on in Colorado, where a major new VA health care facility is under construction — and $1.1 billion over budget.

In Aurora, Colorado, the VA is trying to complete construction of a health center that was estimated to cost $600 million several years ago, but which is now expected to cost $1.7 billion.

Congress is asking how a construction project can jump $1.1 billion, nearly tripling the cost to taxpayers, in just a few years. The VA says it tried a new contracting method that probably contributed to some of the problems. But when asked detailed questions by members of Congress about the blown budget and pressed to provide an accounting of the spending, the VA has few answers.

No matter what the explanation, it’s hard to imagine a private business operating in the same way. It’s not that private businesses don’t make mistakes and have projects go over budget. But companies that have to earn the money being spent will generally watch spending carefully. In government in general, including the VA, taxpayers don’t get the feeling anyone acares about over spending.

It’s not that VA managers or government bureaucrats are bad people or want to waste money, it’s just that they are spending OPM — other peoples’ money.

Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner are proposing that any VA construction project costing more than $100 million be taken out of VA hands and turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers.

That’s a good idea. The VA should be putting all its energy into providing health care services to veterans. Managing multimillion-dollar or billion-dollar construction projects is not part of the VA’s core mission. And clearly, it’s not the VA’s expertise.

The VA has been struggling with the controversy over long delays for veterans getting health care and some VA managers creation of bogus waiting lists to suggest shorter wait times. It clearly has its hands full trying to fix that mess while also trying to provide health care to veterans on a timely basis. The VA should not be distracted by trying to manage massive construction projects across the country.

Taking construction projects off the VA’s plate is a step in the right direction. Demanding more accountability is another overdue step.