Months after he resigned as administrator of the EPA over concerns about his business and first-class travel, a watchdog has recommended that the agency consider recovering $124,000 in extra costs — likely from Scott Pruitt himself.
But in a brief memo responding to the Office of Inspector General, the Environmental Protection Agency rejected that recommendation, and said what it has claimed all along, that every trip was approved and valid.
“EPA believes that the trips were authorized by an appropriate official, making cost recovery inappropriate,” the agency said following the release of the inspector general’s 78-page report.
The report and the release revealed a fight between the auditors and top administrators. Several times in the audit report each side said that it disagreed with the other.
But in the end, the auditor left the decision to recover $123,942 to the EPA and the agency said no.
In almost every section of the report where the inspector general suggested that there were no or inadequate approval of seats upgrades, better hotels, stops in his home of Tulsa, Okla., and added security, the agency said there was, and it provided some documents to prove its point.
Pruitt resigned in July, the subject of several ethics probes promoted by the media and Democrats. He had the support of President Trump to the end because he fought often with environmental groups.
The probe looked at Pruitt’s travels and found that $123,942 was spent over what the inspector general believes should have been spent for Pruitt, his staff, and security to make 34 trips, and cancel six others. The cost was $985,000. The agency has a $8.8 billion budget.
The inspector general’s release expressed frustration with EPA. “The OIG made a total of 14 recommendations, of which 10 are unresolved. Overall, actions need to be taken to strengthen controls over agency travel to help prevent the potential for future fraud, waste and abuse,” it said.
