With a lease deal totaling more than $150 million over 20 years, the proposed new VA Health Center will be the largest government construction project in the history of Butler County. The three-story structure will have the floor space of nearly five football fields.

But so far, it has been only the most contested, protested and delayed project — and possibly the least vetted — in recent memory. There were no public hearings on the selection of a site or developer; and local officials are left guessing — “blindsided,” one township official called it — about the project’s timing or infrastructure needs.

The original contract has been botched once and delayed twice; taken away from a developer with secret ties to convicted organized crime figures and awarded to a second developer; relocated to an alternate site; and now is on hold again while a competing bidder’s protest is investigated.

Throughout the bumpy ride, the Department of Veterans Affairs has disclosed very little about its procedures for selecting the Butler site or developer.

The scant information that has come out was released on the day before a holiday — as was the second awarding of the Butler contract, to Cambridge Healthcare Solutions PA, LP, on New Year’s Eve; or on a Friday afternoon — as when the Cambridge contract was put on hold a week ago. This kind of clever timing blocks reporters from seeking additional details or comments; it forces news outlets to accept the VA’s stunted version of the news.

We should note that the local VA hospital and the national-level VA are different entities. The hospital and staff routinely score very well on metrics used to measure effective service. It gets many praises and few complaints from the region’s 30,000 veterans it serves.

However, the national VA officials responsible for the Butler contract have not scored so well.

A report published last March by the VA’s Office of Inspector General concluded that Westar Devlopment Co. won the original contract after fudging its credentials — claiming experience, assets, a competent general contractor and military veterans in ownership positions — when in fact it had none of these things.

The Office of Inspector General dug deeper and determined that Westar was controlled by Michael Forlani of Cleveland. Forlani and his related companies had been suspended from government contracting in December 2011 because of bribery and racketeering charges. Forlani was indicted and pleaded guilty in August 2012. He was sentenced to eight years in federal prison.

Forlani also had ties to Zenith Systems LLC, which still owns the former Deshon Woods property, the original construction site for the new VA center.

But the OIG’s most damning finding of all was that the VA’s contract officer for the Butler project did nothing to check Westar’s references or documentation — and when a competing developer protested, its complaint “was determined by the [contract officer] to have no merit without any follow-up or discussion with the developer who filed the protest,” according to the OIG report.

Congressman Mike Kelly, R-Butler, is particularly annoyed and determined to crack the VA’s code of silence.

“My colleagues in Congress and I have an abiding responsibility to make sure that our veterans and the taxpayers are properly defended,” he said in a statement released late last week after learning the project was on hold again.

“My office will continue to meet its obligation to provide rigorous oversight and investigation as needed to ensure that the reforms called for by the (Office of Inspector General) are made real.”

The VA’s reluctance to inform the public smacks of arrogance, particularly after its own investigative unit condemned its practices and revoked its Butler contract.

The people have a right and a need to know what’s going on with this massive project, which is being built with their tax dollars for the benefit of their war heroes.

And it’s foolish for anyone — most of all a government agency — to resist the people’s right to know.