An internal watchdog's investigation has found that Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin improperly accepted Wimbledon tennis tickets and likely wrongly used taxpayer money to cover his wife's airfare for an 11-day European trip.
The report also questions Shulkin's decision to direct agency staff on official time to arrange his personal sightseeing activities during the July trip to England and Denmark.
Shulkin's lawyers say he did nothing improper.
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6 comments:
All of these bureaucrats are addicted to OPM - Other Peoples Money (NOT Opium)
Who in their right mind would take OTHER PEOPLES MONEY to pay for your own (or their wife's) vacation!?!?!? Don't' they make enough money!!??
When will it stop? No accountability???
So damn frustrating.
He did do something wrong! He spent money on him self and wife. This money could be spent on homeless Veterans and families of Veterans. These people do not have a heart. They are thieves steeling from our Veterans.
If his lawyer didn't think he did "nothing improper" why don't he give his money to his client to enjoy an expensive vacation?
After all the similar incidents by others in government, these fools just think they are so important that common sense decisions do not apply to them. We (USA) are broke because our government employees (all parties are included) are accustomed to spending 'other people's money'.
Everyone on the federal level needs to have a business mindset when they spend money. In other words, are the dollars being spent absolutely necessary for the success of the business? They also need to be made aware that they can be fired and sued for wasteful spending.
Nothing improper yea right.His lawyers said he did nothing improper, well why then does he need lawyers and if those lawyers are on the government pay roll they aren't his lawyers they are OUR lawyers.
Didn't delve into the details so perhaps some expenses didn't totally mesh with regulations on a look-back basis.
That said, a cabinet member is entitled to a certain amenity level while on official business, and if a spouse is accompanying they should receive the same. They are representing our country. Pure sightseeing should be a personal expense out of their pocket.
We have done a less than adequate job of caring for the medical needs of our veterans so that issue remains. If this Secretary can make genuine progress on fixing the VA, a couple of bucks more for a wider seat when he occasionally flies is an excellent investment.
Two other ideas come to mind: He may have had newly employed staff not completely versed with travel rules because he could only have been sworn in some time in 2017, and wouldn't hire staff until then. Or, holdover staff who served the prior administration may have allowed arrangements they knew could be problematic just cuz it's politics.
Perhaps we'll get a clearer picture. But we need him to be successful for the benefit of the vets.
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