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A scathing report released Wednesday found “serious derelictions” in a 10-day, $122,000 business trip the secretary of veterans affairs took to Europe, which included airfare for his wife and extensive sightseeing. According to the report, Secretary David J. Shulkin traveled to Denmark and London for meetings about health care for veterans, accompanied by his wife, a small staff and a six-person security detail, but nearly half of his time was spent visiting castles and other tourist sites. (Philipps, 2/14)

The inspector general found Shulkin improperly accepted Wimbledon tickets and taxpayer-funded airfare for his wife for the 10-day trip in July, and he and his chief of staff misled VA ethics officials while seeking official approval for the tickets and flights. Investigators found the chief of staff, Viveca Wright Simpson, doctored an email to make it look like Shulkin was getting special recognition or an award during the trip in order to get approval for his wife’s flights. And they said Shulkin mischaracterized the woman who provided him with the Wimbledon tickets as a friend when they had only met three times at official events. (Slack, 2/14)

The investigation of Shulkin's European trip found several other "serious derelictions," the Veterans Affairs inspector general said in a report on its website. The office opened the probe after receiving an anonymous complaint alleging the secretary had misused travel funds because the trip to Europe, which cost at least $122,344, was more personal than business. (Alexander, Heavey and Volcovici, 2/14)

Dr. Shulkin’s response, submitted by his attorneys, said the trip was “immensely valuable” to the VA. They wrote that Dr. Shulkin violated no “ethical regulations” in accepting the Wimbledon tickets. They said Dr. Shulkin had no role in obtaining approval for his wife’s travel, and that the department employee, “on his own initiative,” had undertaken the “detailed planning of tourist activities.” Dr. Shulkin said that he has offered multiple times to reimburse the cost of the Wimbledon tickets, and that a British veterans official obtained them through a personal, not a professional, connection and gave them on a personal basis. (Kesling and Nicholas, 2/14)

Shulkin told POLITICO the IG report was inaccurate — wildly exaggerating the cost of the Wimbledon tickets, for example — and spurred by internal VA opponents of the sweeping changes he is trying to bring to the agency. Shulkin complained that he only had two business days to respond to accusations in the report before it was published.The most reliable politics newsletter. "There are people within my organization who are not happy with the progress we’re making and the direction of the organization, who are deliberately undermining me," he said. Shulkin has demanded more accountability from employees at the VA, which says it removed 1,300 staffers last year and suspended 500 others. "They are really killing me,” he said. (Allen, 2/14)

Confronted by investigators about a European junket that included free tickets to a Wimbledon final, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said he worked a lot during the trip and cited the emerging media storm over substandard care at the Manchester VA Medical Center. That’s according to a VA Inspector General, who reports that Shulkin and his wife inappropriately accepted tickets to the ladies final at Wimbledon and ate lunch at the private members dining room at Wimbledon. Investigators also determined that the nine-day, mid-July trip, which cost taxpayers $122,300, involved only 3 1/2 days of meetings, and VA workers arranged numerous sight-seeing activities in Copenhagen and London for the Shulkins. (Hayward, 2/14)

The Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is scheduled to hold a previously planned hearing at 8 a.m. Its chairman, Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), intends to “address” the issue in his opening statement, his staff said. The hearing follows a damning report issued Wednesday from VA’s inspector general, Michael J. Missal. Shulkin is challenging the findings as “unfair.” (Wax-Thibodeaux, 2/15)