Letter to Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency - Reveal Deputy's Conflicts Of Interest Due To Outside Consulting Work

Letter

Dear Administrator Pruitt,

On March 5th, the Associated Press reported that EPA Deputy Associate Administrator of Public Affairs, John Konkus, was granted permission to earn outside money as a private consultant while simultaneously working as one of your key aides.[1] Importantly, in August, an EPA ethics lawyer noted that Konkus' outside contracts presented a "financial conflict of interest" to the agency. Unfortunately, you have thus far chosen to withhold the names of the clients who receive the benefits of Konkus' private consulting while he is concurrently responsible for signing off on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants.

As a federal employee, John Konkus earns a taxpayer-funded salary of approximately $145,000 per year. If you are going to permit federal employees to receive a side salary as consultants, it is imperative that you disclose the names of their clients to the American people who are responsible for paying their salaries. Taxpayers trust that our federal agencies will act with the utmost integrity and fairness, and it is critical that all are transparent about any consulting work that might be deemed as a conflict of interest.

The EPA has an obligation disclose to the public any private consulting work that is conducted by its own federal employees. Specifically, I respectfully request that you make public the clients that Deputy Associate Administrator Konkus has consulted on behalf of while working for the EPA.

Please disclose this information to the public within the next ten days. If you are unable to do so, please provide a date at which time this information will be available.

Sincerely,

Source