Agency watchdog: Zinke failed to document trips
Management of interior secretary’s travel called ‘deficient’
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has failed to keep complete records — and in some cases kept none at all — of his travel since taking office, the agency’s watchdog told department officials this week, saying that management of Zinke’s travel was “deficient” and lacked oversight.
A rare alert sent by Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall to the secretary’s office Wednesday, obtained by The Washington Post, said her investigation into allegations of improper travel practices by Zinke has been stymied by “absent or incomplete documentation for several pertinent trips.”
Interior lawyers and ethics officials also have not shown evidence to investigators that they have been able to “distinguish between personal, political and official travel” or cost-analysis documents to justify his choice of military or charter flights, Kendall wrote.
Interior Department officials have said that all of Zinke’s travel was approved in advance by ethics officials and that privatecharter flights were booked only when feasible commercial flights were unavailable.
Kendall’s office has requested complete records for Zinke and his wife’s travel, including who paid.
In a letter of response obtained by The Post, Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt told Kendall that the agency would provide the outstanding travel documents. But he blamed the Obama administration for any recordkeeping issues.
“When I arrived at the Department in August 2017, it was clear to me that the Secretary and I inherited an organizational and operational mess from the previous administration,” Bernhardt wrote.
The Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency, also is investigating Zinke’s travel to political fundraisers and appearances for possible violations of the Hatch Act, which bans federal officials from engaging in political activity on the job.
Zinke is one of four current and former Trump administration Cabinet secretaries under investigation by agency watchdogs.
Tom Price, another former member of Congress who was secretary of health and human services, resigned in late September after taking at least $400,000 in chartered flights at taxpayer expense.
The watchdog for the Environmental Protection Agency also is investigating Administrator Scott Pruitt’s frequent travels to his home state of Oklahoma.
Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin’s July trip to Europe, which combined official travel for himself, his wife and two top aides with sightseeing and a Wimbledon tennis event, also is under review.
The Treasury Department inspector general’s office found in October that Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s multiple flights on military jets to destinations from West Virginia to Italy was legal but that Treasury officials had offered poor justifications for the travel.