Report: Navy chief racks up $4.7M in travel

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has racked up more than 930,000 of travel miles costing taxpayers more than $4.7 million during his five years in the position.

The former Mississippi governor has taken at least 40 trips outside the U.S. as of July 2014, according to a Tuesday report by The Associated Press.

Mabus said the 373 days of travel, visiting officials, sailors and Marines in more than 100 countries, is critical to his job in furthering U.S. and Navy interests abroad.

{mosads}An inspector general investigated the travel after receiving a complaint, and Mabus was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Mabus’s flights reportedly cost $4.6 million for fuel, maintenance and crew, and about $116,000 for hotels, meals and other costs. His entourage includes about seven people — a security officer, military assistant, policy advisers and a public affairs officer.

Mabus said negotiating issues such as basing ships in Rota, Spain, is more effective face to face.

“You could do that in a phone call, I guess. You could send them a note,” he told the AP. “I don’t think they take it nearly as seriously if you’re not sitting across the table from them.”

“In terms of the progress we’ve made with countries like Singapore, Spain, Gabon, Palau, Japan — in terms of advancing America’s interests, in terms of advancing Navy interests, in terms of the work that we do together and the benefits that come from that — I think the return on investment has been huge,” he said.

Mabus’s most frequent destination was to landlocked Afghanistan, at 12 visits, but he has also traveled to Spain nine times, due to plans to base four U.S. naval destroyers there as part of the new anti-missile shield.

The trips also provide material for photography books he has self-published. Mabus said he hasn’t earned any money from the books since becoming secretary and that many of the photographs were taken before he took the position.