VA Chief Allegedly Misused Planes

Veterans Affairs Secretary Togo West Jr. cost taxpayers thousands of dollars by traveling on military aircraft on two trips in 1998 instead of taking commercial flights as required by federal rules, the agency’s inspector general says.

In another instance, the report says a 1998 dinner West gave at his home for then-Navy Secretary John Dalton and his wife was permissible but “fueled the perception of waste” because it cost $283 a person for 31 guests--a total of $9,340.

The report, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, says West concurred with the findings.

West has said he would leave his post before the Clinton presidency ends. He has been criticized by veterans groups, who contend he has not fought hard enough to increase the budget for veterans.

The inspector general’s report says West should not have used government aircraft unless no commercial flights were “reasonably available” and the cost of using the government plane would not exceed the cost of flying commercially.

West and a party of five left on an Air Force plane for Alaska on Oct. 14, 1998, with the secretary planning to speak to a native Alaskan convention and visit a VA medical center, a VA regional office, a national cemetery and a joint facility built with the Air Force.

The VA originally planned to pay the Air Force $60,000 for a round trip. Had West and the others taken commercial aircraft, the cost would have been $4,302, the report says.

After arriving in Alaska, West was asked by the White House to travel to Casper, Wyo., to represent President Clinton at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who died after a savage beating.

The VA party could have flown commercially from Casper instead of taking an Air Force plane that had been sent from Washington, report found.

Similarly, if West and three others had flown commercially to Louisiana for a banquet on Oct. 24, 1998, it would have cost $944 instead of the $3,396 it cost for the Washington-Louisiana leg, the report says. No bill was submitted for the return flight.