Deval Patrick’s travel slush fund no longer secret

By Yaël Ossowski | Watchdog.org

If your governor had a secret travel slush fund worth tens of millions of dollars used to jet set to Japan, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, wouldn’t you want to know about it?

That’s the question put to Massachusetts residents this week after revelations former Gov. Deval Patrick used off-the-record bookkeeping to conceal more than $37.5 million driven to a secret fund to pay for trips to promote Massachusetts abroad.

Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature have begun their probe of the former democratic governor turned hedge fund manager for Bain Capital, once headed up by his fellow former Gov. Mitt Romney.

As uncovered by the Boston Herald on Friday, the former governor enjoyed dozens of trade missions abroad at public expense but without legislative approval. His administration is purported to have shoveled as much as $27 million into off-budget accounts from the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, Massport and the Mass Tech Collaborative, all quasi-independent agencies.

Both Massport, the state’s port authority, and Mass Tech Collaborative, the venture seeking to bring Israeli tech firms to Massachusetts, paid $1.75 million for Patrick’s trade trips.

This amount includes $535,558 for hotels, $332,193 for airfare, $305,976 for limos and more than $175,000 on other expenses.

These agencies are run independently of the state government to avoid the pitfalls of politics.

“Why do they have that money to burn and why were the transfers so effectively hidden from the public?,” asked Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a nonprofit free market think tank. “Quasi-public agencies, set up once to be self-funding or agencies capable of retaining unique expertise, are too often in Massachusetts and, frankly, across the country havens of secrecy that are politically well-connected and with money to burn.”

He told Watchdog.org that by bypassing the Legislative, he most likely broke a state law.

“The legislature has the exclusive power to appropriate funds, and the executive is there to execute programs,” he said. “Governor Patrick overstepped his rightful role by appropriating funds in what is likely an illegal manner.”

Members of both the State House and Senate say they have no idea how the money was spent.

As such, the House Post Audit Committee has opened an investigation into the expenses, trying to track down how the money was funneled into secret accounts and where it came from.

State Rep. David Linsky, chairman of the committee, said he was not aware of the accounts.

“We are at the very preliminary stages of an investigation,” he said. “What the Herald uncovered caught all of us by surprise.”

“An investigation should begin immediately to ascertain whether the transfer and use of these funds was as a result of improper actions or if any fraud, waste, or abuse has occurred,” GOP State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr told reporters Monday. “It appears that these transfers were made in such a manner as to elude disclosure and circumvent accountability.”

Throughout his term, Patrick was insistent on the need to travel to other countries and represent the interests of Massachusetts businesses. In the span of a few years, he visited Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Panama, Mexico, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

“We are opening our doors to markets all around the world and it’s making a difference, it’s adding jobs here,” said Patrick to reporters last year.

As if the former governor didn’t have enough of a traveling problem, he was once slated to receive more than $7,500 per day spent advocating for Boston to be the 2024 host of the Olympic Games. He only relinquished the pay after the uproar that ensued once it was revealed to the public.