The Veterans Affairs medical center in Detroit bought $300,000 worth of TVs that were never installed, the inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs has found.

In September 2013, 300 TVs were bought by the John D. Dingell Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, but 282 of them were never installed because they were "the wrong type," according to the report.

The TVs remained in storage for about 2 1/2 years, at which point the warranties on the TVs had expired.

The medical center had planned to rebuild the patient TV system. But since the hospital did not contact contractors before making the purchase, it had to pay an additional fee of $19,052 to adjust the design of the system since the TVs were the wrong type.

The system was never rebuilt, though. The medical center may have broken the "bona-fide needs rule" because it bought the TVs more than two years before it had a construction contract to install them, the watchdog said.

As of June 21, the center still did not have a construction contract.