AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The former watchdog over U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq has been forced out of a powerful Texas job after he moonlighted as a consultant for the Iraqi government.
Stuart Bowen was asked to resign as inspector general of the sprawling Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said John Wittman, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Bowen's ouster came after Texas Monthly discovered his consulting work.
"This was a serious and unacceptable lapse in judgment by Mr. Bowen," Wittman said Thursday.
Documents show that Bowen was introduced to Trump administration officials in recent months as a senior adviser to a Washington law firm representing the Iraq government. He previously was special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. But in 2015, Abbott hired him to bolster accountability and oversight to the state's $40 billion health agency, which at the time was reeling from a contracting scandal.
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