Fda Chief’s Travel Records Scrutinized

A hotel room here. Dozens of excessive cab fares there. A government-discount plane ticket for the wife. For five years, Food and Drug Administration chief David Kessler submitted expense accounts riddled with nickel-and-dime overcharges in his favor, a review of records shows.

Confronted with travel vouchers that were signed as truthful under penalty of federal law, Kessler insisted Friday the errors were unintentional and he has written an $850 check to cover anything he owes the government.

“Even while things are being corrected and so there can’t be any questions, I’ve reimbursed the government based on preliminary figures,” Kessler said.

The Associated Press reviewed some $17,377 in federal reimbursements that Kessler claimed on travel vouchers from mid-1990 through spring 1995. More than a third ($5,732) was for cab fares for which he had no receipts. Many of the fares were far in excess of actual costs - in some cases two or three times.

The AP obtained Kessler’s travel vouchers from government officials and the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative legal group that has sued the FDA seeking several of Kessler’s records.