The members are pressing the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a full audit of this deal.
Request a Government Accountability Office audit of the Trump administration's United States-Venezuela energy deal, including oversight of the funds, accounting of agencies and contractors involved, and review of potential fraud, waste, abuse, and conflicts of interest.
Occurrences
Evidence
The members are pressing the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a full audit of this deal... [including] a full accounting of the agencies, employees, and contractors involved in the deal... [and] potential areas for fraud, waste, abuse, and conflicts of interest.
Introduced the Venezuela Oil Proceeds Transparency Act, legislation that directs the non-partisan Government Accountability Office to conduct an independent audit of the Trump Administration’s handling of hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuelan oil funds... the bill requires the GAO to initiate an audit of the United States-Venezuela energy deal.
A bill to require the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct an audit of a United States and Venezuela energy deal... [with] a GAO AUDIT.
The lawmakers pressed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for answers on the Treasury’s claimed authority over, and handling of, funds generated from the sale of Venezuelan oil... stating that no formal audit agreement is currently in place, but the Treasury Department will bring in outside auditors.
Assessments
Casten clearly took concrete same-term action matching the promise: he publicly requested a GAO audit and introduced legislation directing the Comptroller General to conduct that audit of the U.S.-Venezuela energy deal, including funds, involved agencies and contractors, and possible fraud, waste, abuse, and conflicts. However, the evidence does not show that GAO actually opened or completed the audit, nor that the request was formally granted. Later evidence explicitly says no formal audit agreement was in place, which blocks a finding of full delivery. Because the promise wording is to request an audit, his letter and bill strongly satisfy the effort and much of the action, but absent proof the request was officially effectuated through GAO, the safest judgment is partial rather than delivered.