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

[Neverdul]

WASHINGTON — Department of Veterans Affairs investigators are poised to claim Secretary David Shulkin improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets and used taxpayers' money to pay his wife's airfare during a European trip last summer — findings Shulkin’s lawyers are blasting as questionable and unfair.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/12/va-secretary-david-shulkin-blast-findings-he-improperly-used-taxpayer/330585002/


Why does a US VA Secretary need to travel to Europe for 10 days in the first place? Why are US taxpayers footing the bill for his wife’s travel? Going to Wimbledon?

They say the trip was “immensely valuable” to his work learning about and participating in addressing developing issues facing veterans. They said it is “beyond obvious” that it qualified as “essential travel” and any suggestion otherwise demonstrates a “fundamental lack of understanding of the Secretary’s work and the VA’s mission.”

So he had to travel to Denmark and London to learn about addressing the needs and issues of US veterans?

They said flying home after the meetings in Denmark on July 14 and then flying back for the summit in London July 18 would have cost taxpayers more than their staying in Europe those four days. The sightseeing they did during that time was paid for by Shulkin and his wife, Merle Bari. And they said his wife’s coach airfare to Europe was approved as a taxpayer expense by VA ethics officials, and he had nothing to do with securing that approval.

OK, I get that but was the trip necessary in the first place? And why was it necessary for his wife to accompany him on the US tax payers dime?

Oh and he used a VA employee to arrange their sightseeing excursions.

In addition, they said an aide began planning sightseeing activities voluntarily and not at Shulkin’s direction, and his involvement in daily planning was necessary in any case, given the coordination required for security.

Sure… an aide just took it upon him or herself to plan sightseeing activities. And the Secretary didn’t have the mind to say “no” this is an official business trip?

“In fact, Secretary Shulkin and Dr. Bari were prepared to pay for Dr. Bari’s travel as they always had done previously,” they wrote. “It was only when staff approached the Secretary to suggest Dr. Bari’s travel could be reimbursed that Secretary Shulkin became aware that was a possibility.”