VA secretary improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets during $122,334 European work trip: Report

 Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin improperly accepted a gift of Wimbledon tickets during a work trip to Europe last summer in which he spent the majority of the time sightseeing, according to a blistering new report released by the VA's Office of Inspector General.

The 11-day trip to Copenhagen and London cost taxpayers at least $122,334, the report said. It also alleged that Shulkin's chief of staff altered a document and misrepresented information to ethics officials that ultimately caused his wife's airfare to be covered by taxpayer dollars.

Shulkin, his wife Dr. Merle Bari, senior VA leaders and a six-member security detail flew a commercial airline to Copenhagen in July to attend a day-and-a-half of meetings with Danish government and health care officials to discuss veterans issues, but also included a day of tourist stops.

The delegation then flew commercially to London to attend a veterans conference. But over half of the secretary's six days there were spent sightseeing, including a trip on the London Eye, a river cruise down the Thames, and the Wimbledon tennis tournament, according to the report.

The IG report said that, in the process, a VA employee's time was "misused as a personal travel concierge to plan tourist activities exceeding that necessary for security arrangements."

Shulkin called the report "a direct assault on my spouse, my character and my unblemished record of service."

Source :- abcnews