Interior Department officials are being asked by investigators to more fully document travel by Secretary Ryan Zinke, including details on when his wife traveled with him.
To date, the Office of Inspector General's review of the secretary's travel has been slowed "by absent, or incomplete documentation for several pertinent trips and a review process that failed to include proper documentation and accountability," Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall told Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in a letter Wednesday.
"Although we have received full cooperation from all employees contacted, we have found the documentation and adherence to Departmental travel policies deficient and without proper management oversight and accountability," she added in the letter. "Many authorizations and vouchers required for Secretary Zinke’s fiscal year 2017 travel have yet to be completed and processed.
"In addition, we learned that the Office of the Solicitor and Department Ethics officials have established a process to review and approve Secretarial travel, but the process does not include sufficient documentation of the legal and ethical analysis conducted to distinguish between personal, political, and official travel, or consistent cost analysis to justify use of noncommercial travel," wrote Ms. Kendall. "Finally, based on the documents we have received to date, we have not been able to determine the full extent to which Lolita Zinke, the Secretary’s wife, accompanied the Secretary on official travel."
The Inspector General's office opened the investigation into Secretary Zinke's travel in September after he spent $12,375 on a charter flight from Las Vegas to Kalispell, Montana, so he could attend a function in his hometown of Whitefish, Montana. A commercial flight would have cost the secretary around $300.
After news broke of the charter expense, Secretary Zinke referred to it as "a little BS over travel."
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, also inquired about the secretary's travel decisions.
“Ethical guidelines are on the books to promote transparency and responsible use of taxpayer dollars. Federal officials should be held to the highest ethical standard in adhering to these rules,” Rep. Bishop said in a statement at the time. “When violations occur, the public deserves to know. When willful violations occur, there should be consequences. When partisan opportunists conflate diligent conformance to scandal, no one wins. Let’s get all facts on the table, ensure taxpayers are protected, and proceed with the peoples’ business.”
In a letter to the secretary's office Mr. Bishop asked for documents regarding Interior policies and guidelines for travel when using “government-owned, rented, leased, or chartered aircraft” and “each use of a government-owned, rented, leased, or chartered aircraft by the Secretary of the Department of the Interior since January 20, 2009,” a period that also covers the years the Interior Department was led by Ken Salazar (2009-2013) and Sally Jewell (2013-2017).
Ms. Kendall in her letter to Mr. Bernhardt asked that her office be provided by December 11 with:
* Complete documentation for all FY17 Secretarial travel (authorizations, vouchers, reimbursements).
* Complete documentation for all FY17 travel for the Secretary’s wife when she accompanied him on official travel. This documentation should describe all instances when Mrs. Zinke traveled in a government-owned vehicle, watercraft, or aircraft, and whether payment on her behalf was paid in advance, determined to be reimbursable, or no reimbursement required.
Interest over Mrs. Zinke's travels with her husband came after news that she and the secretary's aunt accompanied him on a tour of Channel Islands National Park off the coast of California.
The OIG also recommended that Interior officials:
1. Develop and implement procedures (with appropriate performance management measures) to complete the timely processing of future Secretarial travel documents in accordance with government travel regulations and Department policy.
2. Develop and implement procedures to ensure consistent documentation of the SOL’s legal and ethical analysis of the Secretary’s future travel, to include the review, analysis, and approval of:
* Use of non-commercial transportation;
* Personal and political travel, and need for reimbursement;
* Accompanied spousal or family travel.
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Comments
He didn't learn one single life lesson from his naval career hitting rocky shoals over travel fraud. He requires frequent and bright daylight, to cleanse him from the public eye.
After the previous finding of travel fraud against him while in the Navy, Secretary Zinke claimed to have learned a valuable lesson. I don't think so, as he has neither cleaned up his act, nor has he learned how to better hide his indiscretions.
In a normal environment where public officials were accountable to the public, he would be asked to step down. Such as in Obama's cabinet. Of course, Obama would never nominate someone with a proven track record of fraud so we wouldn't be speaking of it. But this says volumes about Trumps "best and brightest" crooks who daily see public service as nothing more than an avenue for private gain. He is as morally bankrupt as his boss.
Jeesh. If this yahoo had been working for the company in which I work, he'd have had his corporate credit card taken away from him, pronto and not been allowed to travel any longer on the company's dime. Of course, I guess there is a difference between traveling on a corporation's dime versus traveling on the United States taxpayers' dime.