California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's handling of travel costs has drawn criticism from nonprofit watchdogs and open-government advocates, it was reported on Monday.
Critics said the governor's luxury trips are itemized vaguely, a deceptive way to thwart scrutiny of the lavish spending, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Schwarzenegger's office has avoided fully disclosing payments of 1.7 million dollars in nonprofit funds for private jets, hotel suites and support staff for his trips overseas, the paper quoted state documents and interviews as saying.
Record-keeping for many of the governor's luxury-class jaunts has been by word of mouth, Schwarzenegger's attorney Daniel Maguire confirmed.
In late 2004, the multimillionaire governor stopped reporting the travel expenses on state disclosure forms that itemize gifts to elected officials, according to the paper. Instead, Schwarzenegger's top aides recorded some of the costs -- and made only general references to others -- in memos they wrote to themselves and filed away in the governor's legal affairs office.
Several of the memos did not include dollar amounts, even though regulations under the state Political Reform Act require that such figures be disclosed in a written public record within 30 days of payment.
Schwarzenegger has frequently called for more transparency -- what he calls the "antiseptic of sunshine" -- in state government, but he had done the contrary.
"They're trying to not have written records," said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies. "I would call it creative accounting -- creative oral accounting."
Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the governor's office did nothing wrong. "We've been following the law all along," he said.
The expenses include leased Gulfstream jets costing up to 10,000 dollars per hour and suites going for thousands of dollars a night. They are paid for by the California State Protocol Foundation, a Chamber of Commerce-aligned nonprofit whose usually secret contributors receive the same tax deductions as donors to food banks and universities.
Unlike campaign contributors, the foundation's supporters can donate unlimited amounts without revealing their names in most cases.
Aaron Dorfman, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, said the actions by Schwarzenegger and the foundation are "highly irregular," and "a clear example of philanthropy being abused."
Source: Xinhua
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