An approximately $31,000 dining-room set with custom hardwood tables and chairs was purchased by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for Secretary Ben Carson’s office last year, according to a new report.
The furniture was purchased just after an official at the agency filed a complaint against Carson’s wife, Candy, claiming she pushed for department offices to be refurbished, the New York Times reports.
The official who filed the complaint, Helen Foster, said she was ousted from her position and then transferred because she did not comply with Candy Carson’s request. She said she was instructed to “find money” for redecoration, even though it would go above the budgetary limits of $5,000.
If a department head wishes to redecorate an office and it exceeds $5,000, congressional approval is required, but congressional approval was not requested by officials at the agency, according to the report.
However, the agency has claimed that Carson tries to be “fiscally prudent.”
“In general, the secretary does want to be as fiscally prudent as possible with the taxpayers’ money,” Raffi Williams, a spokesperson for the agency, told the New York Times.
According to Williams, Carson “didn’t know the table had been purchased.” However, Carson doesn’t plan to return it.
The report comes as the agency’s inspector general is conducting a probe into the involvement of Carson’s family at the agency.
For example, some officials were troubled that Ben Carson Jr., a local businessman who is the secretary’s son, extended an invitation for a HUD event to possible business associates. The officials said this “gave the appearance that the secretary may be using his position for his son’s private gain.”
The secretary requested that the IG look into his son’s role in the HUD-sponsored listening tour in Baltimore in 2017.
