Ethics questions cloud US hearings

Rex Tillerson’s disclosure that he stands to receive a $180m (€170m) cash payout from Exxon Mobil Corp if he becomes the next US secretary of state offers a preview of thorny ethical questions that may be raised this week over a presidential cabinet stacked with tycoons.

With confirmation hearings scheduled for Mr Tillerson and eight other appointees of president-elect Donald Trump, the head of the federal office that helps ensure compliance with conflict-of-interest rules told lawmakers his agency is hard-pressed by too much work and too little time.

Walter M Shaub Jr, director of the federal Office of Government Ethics, wrote to Democratic senators that the timeframe was putting pressure on ethics officials.

He said: “This schedule has created undue pressure to rush through these important reviews. More significantly, it has left some of the nominees with potentially unknown or unresolved ethics issues shortly before their scheduled hearings.”

Mr Tillerson ironed out an agreement with the State Department under which Exxon would pay the cash into an independent trust for him, a move designed to separate his financial interests from the oil company that he led as chairman and chief executive officer until he stepped down on January 1.

Some compensation specialists question whether Exxon departed from its official compensation policies to extend its former leader a special arrangement.

The company says it hasn’t, but Tillerson’s ethics filing last week foreshadows the complexity that will attend a busy week of hearings. By this time during President Obama’s transition in 2009, OGE had approved disclosures and ethics agreements for eight of 15 cabinet members.

Disclosures for five of Trump’s picks have been approved by OGE thus far.

Two of Trump’s cabinet picks are billionaires. Four more are worth at least $100m each. Only Tillerson has had his financial disclosure and ethics agreement made public so far.

“What’s novel about this administration is the sheer number” of high-level appointees with extensive financial interests, said Lawrence Noble, general counsel of the Campaign Legal Centre.

Bloomberg