Ousted HHS chief Tom Price should repay $341,000 for lavish travel, inspector general says
WASHINGTON _ Former Health and Human Services secretary Tom Price should repay the federal government more than $341,000 for improperly using charter and military aircraft for travel for himself and his wife, a new report from the agency's independent Office of the Inspector General has concluded.
"The Office of the Secretary improperly used federal funds related to former Secretary Price's government travel," said the report, released Friday. Auditors found that 20 of the 21 trips that Price took during his brief tenure as secretary in 2017 did not meet federal requirements.
Price, a conservative Georgia congressman and friend of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., whom President Donald Trump tapped to lead the health agency, was forced to resign last September after reports by Politico outlined his extensive use of charter and military aircraft for routine travel domestically and around the world.
Many of the flights were between major U.S. cities served by much cheaper commercial airlines.
After the scandal broke, Price said he would repay a portion of the costs.
But the Office of Inspector General recommended that the health agency recoup an additional $341,616 from Price, who is now serving on the advisory board of Atlanta-based Jackson Healthcare.
The inspector general estimated that the government spent nearly $1.2 million on Price's travel during his seven months in office. That included more than $700,000 in military flights on two foreign and two domestic trips, as well as more than $480,000 for various domestic trips by private chartered aircraft.
In a formal response, HHS agreed with most of the inspector general's recommendations for tightening up official travel and requested details on the $341,000 that investigators said the government should recoup.
An HHS spokesperson said the agency would ask the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel to review whether there is a legal basis to recoup the money.
Nicholas Peters, a spokesman for Price, suggested in a statement that the costly travel was the result of "good faith mistakes" by HHS staff.
Peters would not say if the former secretary will repay the taxpayer money that the inspector general says should be recouped.
_Los Angeles Times
