VA Secretary David Shulkin misused government resources, agency watchdog report says

Donovan Slack | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption VA Secretary David Shulkin responds to travel allegations and rumors of HHS position VA Secretary David Shulkin says taxpayers did not foot the bill for his sightseeing during a European trip. He also dismisses rumors that he is in the running to become the next HHS secretary.

WASHINGTON – Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets and airfare for his wife during a European trip last summer that cost taxpayers more than $122,000, according to a VA inspector general report released Wednesday.

His chief of staff, Viveca Wright Simpson, made false representations to a VA ethics lawyer and altered an official email to secure approval for taxpayer funding of Shulkin’s wife’s flights, which cost more than $4,000, the VA inspector general found.

Shulkin told ethics officials the tennis tickets were provided by a personal friend, Victoria Gosling, an adviser for the Invictus Games, a sporting event for wounded warriors. The inspector general concluded that was not the case.

The inspector general found the excursion led to a “misuse of VA resources.” Shulkin and his wife, Merle Bari, took the trip with three other VA executives and a six-member security detail ostensibly to attend meetings in Denmark and a summit on veterans’ issues in London.

Nearly half the 10-day trip last July was spent sightseeing, and Shulkin directed an aide beforehand to plan the leisure activities with his wife. The aide made “extensive use of official time” to make the arrangements, investigators found.

“This was time that should have been spent conducting official VA business and not providing personal travel concierge services to Secretary Shulkin and his wife,” Inspector General Michael Missal wrote.

He recommended that the secretary reimburse the VA for Bari's airfare and Gosling for the Wimbledon tickets and take disciplinary action against his chief of staff. He urged the VA to audit the trip and improve training on travel planning and ethics regulations surrounding improper gifts.

In a letter to Missal, Shulkin said the report ignores key evidence and “draws conclusions based on subjective and arbitrary criteria.” He said he had nothing to do with securing approval for his wife’s airfare, and the Wimbledon tickets were not a prohibited gift because Gosling had no business before the VA.

“It is outrageous that you would portray my wife and me as attempting to take advantage of the government,” Shulkin wrote.

He said he would comply with the recommendations to reimburse the costs of the airfare and tickets.

Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate and House VA committees — who were briefed by Missal on Wednesday morning — said in a joint statement that they were "disappointed" by the findings and urged Shulkin to "actively address" all of the allegations.

"We believe that public officials must be held to a higher standard, and whether intentional or not, misusing taxpayer dollars is unacceptable," wrote Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., chairman and ranking member of the Senate committee, and Reps. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., and Tim Walz, D-Minn., chairman and ranking member of the House committee.

Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman, a moderate Republican who has criticized Shulkin, called for his resignation Wednesday within hours of the report's release.

"It's exactly corruption and abuses like this that doesn't help our veterans," Coffman tweeted. "@SecShulkin must RESIGN now. @realDonaldTrump ran on accountability, it starts here."

Ethics experts back IG

Independent ethics specialists who reviewed the report and Shulkin's response said the inspector general's findings are sound. Meredith McGehee, executive director of the non-partisan, non-profit group Issue One, said Gosling probably didn't provide the tickets because Shulkin and Bari were friends.

"That just doesn't pass the smell test as being a gift based on personal friendship," she said. Seeking to build a relationship with the secretary of Veterans Affairs would have been the more logical reason, she said.

Craig Holman, an ethics specialist with Public Citizen, said Shulkin didn't seek ethics clearance to accept the tickets until months later, when a Washington Post story about the trip was imminent.

"And when the gift is so lavish as to consist of prime seats at Wimbledon and wining and dining, even if the gifts did come from a friend — which they did not — these gifts are subject to approval and fully reported, which Shulkin failed to do," Holman said.

Spending so much time on leisure with no relation to government business is questionable, McGehee said.

"It's trips like these, when you spend almost half the time sightseeing, that undermine the public’s confidence that it is the public's business that is being conducted here," she said. "And that is very unfortunate."

Shulkin is the only holdover from the Obama administration in President Trump’s Cabinet. He was undersecretary for Health. He is one of several top appointees ensnared in travel problems.

Tom Price resigned as Health and Human Services secretary in September after he racked up at least $400,000 in charter flights on the public’s dime. The inspector general at the Department of the Interior dinged Secretary Ryan Zinke in November for incomplete documentation of his official travel, including trips with his wife.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin faced an inspector general investigation after he used government aircraft for several official trips that cost taxpayers at least $800,000. The Treasury IG found in October that Mnuchin had not violated any laws with the travel. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt remains under investigation by that agency’s inspector general.

More: VA watchdog to say chief wrongly accepted Wimbledon tickets, airfare, but his lawyers blast findings

More: Exclusive: VA chief dismisses European travel ‘distraction,’ buzz over HHS post