Investigators: Arizona Memorial employee took improper gifts
STAR-ADVERTISER
The USS Missouri and the USS Arizona Memorial, foreground, are seen on a pass and review aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 2016 at Pearl Harbor.
A National Park Service employee at the USS Arizona Memorial accepted gifts from tour operators in violation of ethics regulations, U.S. Department of Interior investigators said today.
The gifts included a $50 jacket and golf course green fees valued at about $85, the department’s inspector general said in a three-paragraph summary of their report on the case. Investigators didn’t release their full report for privacy reasons and because it contained law enforcement information.
The report says the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Hawaii declined to prosecute.
Investigators launched their probe after hearing a Park Service employee may have had improper relationships with tour operators to whom he distributed memorial tickets. The report didn’t identify the employee or say when he received the gifts.
The memorial straddles the USS Arizona, which sank in Pearl Harbor during the 1941 Japanese bombing. It is a gravesite for more than 900 sailors and Marines killed on the battleship.
Boats carry visitors to the memorial from a visitor’s center on shore but demand often exceeds the 4,350 boat tickets available each day. About 1.8 million people visit Pearl Harbor every year.
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
The inspector general’s findings come nearly four years after an internal National Park Service report said tour companies sold tickets with the knowledge of park officials even though tickets are supposed to be free.
The park’s superintendent said the following year the practice stopped when officials realized it didn’t comply with park service policy and wasn’t working as intended.
The September 2013 report said park service employees gave walk-in tickets intended for independent visitors to commercial tour companies who then sold them.
Tickets were also given to Pacific Historic Parks, a nonprofit that runs a gift shop and raises money for the memorial. The organization gave some to people spending $7 to rent an audio tour from the nonprofit, and gave others to companies that would lead clients to the audio tours.
There were rarely enough tickets for independent visitors while this was going on.
The 2013 report said there was “at minimum” no transparency in the way tickets were distributed.
