EPA watchdog suggests agency recover

The Environmental Protection Agency should consider recovering canada goose outlet sale nearly $124,000 in improper canada goose outlet black friday travel expenses by former EPA chief Scott Pruitt, the agency’s inspector general recommended Thursday.

The findings, issued nearly a year after Pruitt resigned amid canada goose outlet reviews controversy over his spending, travel and ties to cheap canada goose cheap canada goose canada goose jacket outlet lobbyists and outside groups, highlight the fiscal impact of his penchant for high end travel and accommodations. Investigators concluded that 40 trips Pruitt either took or scheduled during a 10 month period, between March 1 and Dec. 31, 2017, resulted in excessive costs to taxpayers of $985,037.

The bulk of those canada goose outlet jackets expenses were for Pruitt’s round the clock security detail, which billed $428,896 in travel costs. The agency spent an additional $339,894 on staffers traveling with the former administrator. The “questioned amount” the inspector general’s office identifies for possible recovery is the $123,941 that taxpayers canada goose outlet nyc spent on flying both Pruitt and a security agent in first or canada goose black friday sale business class, instead of coach.

The report also highlights the extent to which Pruitt’s official travel revolved around trips to Tulsa, Okla., where he maintained a home while a canada goose uk black friday member of President Trump’s Cabinet. It noted that out of the 40 trips investigators scrutinized, 16 included “travel to, or stops in, Oklahoma” where Pruitt maintained a residence.

EPA said in response to the report that the agency had a long standing policy of allowing travel other than coach class.

It appears unlikely that the EPA will actually recover the extra funds it spent flying Pruitt and one of his security agents in first or business class, however, given Pruitt’s departure and the fact that half the money paid for the agent’s airfare. Treasury for $51,887.31 to offset charter and military flights he took in 2017. However, that agency’s IG later urged recovery of at least $341,000 from Price after investigating cheap canada goose uk his use of private and military aircraft.

Investigators conclude that Pruitt’s use of chartered and military flights while at EPA “was justified and approved in accordance with regulations.” Those trips included one on an Interior Department plane to the Oklahoma panhandle which cost $14,434, and another canada goose clearance sale in which a military jet carried Pruitt to New York at a cost of $36,068 so that he could catch a flight to Italy for an international meeting of environmental ministers.

The vast majority of Pruitt’s travel costs 82 percent canada goose outlet store uk stemmed from his airfare, the report found. During the 10 months investigators analyzed, $878,336 was from trips that Pruitt took, and $106,701 came from six trips that were ultimately canceled. The report did not examine flights during 2018, though Pruitt primarily flew coach after The Post detailed his extensive first class travels in February that year.

In a 2017 memo obtained by The Washington Post under a public records request, the head of Pruitt’s security detail wrote that the controversial administrator was being recognized more often in public and that those guarding him had noticed “at times lashing canada goose outlet online uk out from passengers, which occurs while the Administrator is seated in coach with [his personal security detail] not easily accessible to him due canada goose black friday sale to uncontrolled full flights.”

As a result, Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta wrote, canada goose outlet shop “We believe that the continued use of coach seats for the Administrator would endanger his life, and therefore respectfully canada goose factory sale ask that he be placed in either business or first class accommodations.” The memo, and officials’ argument that Pruitt faced greater security threats than his predecessors, was used as a basis for the EPA chief to routinely fly first class.

Last year, a Post investigation found that the former administrator also exceeded the government rate for hotels and other daily expenses by more than 150 percent on 17 of his trips, largely because he routinely chose to stay in boutique hotels. The inspector general’s office identified a similar pattern, concluding that Pruitt’s costs exceeded the daily government rate by more than 150 percent on 10 of the 34 trips it examined.

In other instances, the report identified instances where the agency lacked a detailed cheap Canada Goose accounting for expenses or justification for some of Pruitt’s trips, such as ones with stops in Tulsa.

The new findings effectively end the agency watchdog’s probe into Pruitt, who now works as consultant to coal companies.

In November, the inspector general closed two inquiries into his conduct without reaching any conclusions because he resigned as administrator before he could be interviewed. Those investigations focused on https://www.naslsoccerbowl.com Pruitt’s use of staff members for personal canada goose uk outlet purposes and a condo rental deal he made with a lobbyist.

The office did not make canada goose outlet parka a finding as to whether Pruitt violated federal law, according to its semiannual report to Congress, saying in each case buy canada goose jacket that “the result of the investigation was inconclusive.”.