Apparently, ex-NASA boss Sean O’Keefe had some nice jaunts in private jets thanks to US taxpayers. But because there weren’t any policies in place to say this was wrong, he doesn’t have to cough up for his trips to play golf and to pick up an award for being Irish-American.

The story has been rumbling for a while – in May NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) concluded an investigation into allegations that O’Keefe was zooming around an inappropriate number of times courtesy of NASA. Two trips in particular were investigated – an empty jet was sent to collect O’Keefe when he stayed behind after a NASA meeting to play golf, and a trip with his wife to attend an awards ceremony in New York City.

In response, NASA’s chief financial officer sent a memo saying that no crime had been committed so O’Keefe didn’t have to cough up the $1,800. Rather, the memo says, “the issues raised with respect to those trips appear to be the result of failures in the Agency’s procedures and processes for the review and approval of Mission Management Aircraft flights at the time. Those procedural deficiencies have since been corrected.” How exactly they have been corrected is not clear.

The case is now closed but it’s still caught the eye of the Orlando Sentinel which doesn’t beat about the bush, saying that O’Keefe wasted tax payer’s money. O’Keefe is adamant that he did nothing wrong. I’m not so sure I agree, but it seems he has no price to pay.

Hat tip: NASA watch.