VA Secretary David Shulkin says he learned 'lots of lessons from handling of travel report

Source: USA Today

VA Secretary David Shulkin says he learned 'lots of lessons’ from handling of travel report

Donovan Slack, USA TODAY Published 6:00 a.m. ET Feb. 27, 2018 | Updated 7:06 a.m. ET Feb. 27, 2018

WASHINGTON – Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said the past two weeks have been a “difficult time” as he grappled with the findings of a VA inspector general's investigation that concluded he improperly accepted airfare for his wife and Wimbledon tickets during a European trip last year. Shulkin said he learned from the experience and is eager to refocus on fixing the VA.

“I think as I look back upon it, there are lots of lessons that I could learn from this,” Shulkin said in an interview with USA TODAY. “And putting the agency in a position where we’ve had this distraction is something that I take accountability for. And I want to learn from that and move forward, so we can get back on the agenda that we all have to do, and that is to fix VA health care and fix VA services.”

The inspector general's report released Feb. 14 concluded Shulkin spent nearly half of the 10-day trip to Denmark and London sightseeing, and he wrongly used a VA aide on official time to plan the leisure activities. The report said the tennis tickets came from a British businesswoman he had met only at official events; therefore, he shouldn’t have accepted them. The report said his then-chief of staff doctored an email to ethics officials to secure approval improperly for his wife to join him on the trip at taxpayer expense.

Before the report’s release, Shulkin called the findings inaccurate and unfair, but afterward, he expressed regret and said he would repay the cost of the airfare and tennis tickets. He suggested after the report’s release that his chief of staff’s email may have been hacked. That chief of staff, Vivieca Wright Simpson, retired amid the fallout Feb. 16.

Shulkin said Monday that a subsequent review found the VA computer system was not breached and that Simpson’s email was not hacked. He said the incident that led to his raising such a possibility was her showing him an email from someone outside the VA using her name.

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Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/27/va-secretary-david-shulkin-says-he-learned-lots-lessons-handling-travel-report/374247002/