Oklahoma Attorney General Calls For Immediate Resignation Of Oklahoma Secretary Of Tourism Following Audit

Attorney General Gentner Drummond has called for the resignation of Shelly Zumwalt, the secretary of tourism for Oklahoma.

Zumwalt was named secretary in Jan. 2024 by Gov. Stitt. Zumwalt also served in multiple roles at the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) and was the Executive Director of Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC).

The press release from Drummond says this is in response to an audit conducted by State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Bird. Drummond alleges that Zumwalt used her position to approve state funds for a company where her husband was vice president. According to Byrd, Zumwalt checked 'no' on forms, indicating that there was no relation or conflict of interest in the contracting of the funds.

Byrd says the audit show a systemic problem with mismanagement , saying "questionable conduct has led to an abuse of taxpayer dollars."

The Attorney General’s full statement can be read below:

“The audit findings released today show troubling and all too familiar patterns of mismanagement, costing taxpayers millions as a result. Today’s report confirms my previous order of an investigative audit of OMES, which is sorely needed and long overdue.

“One of the most egregious findings is the wholly inappropriate and potentially unlawful actions of Secretary Shelley Zumwalt, who used her position as executive director of OESC to approve millions of dollars in contracts for a software company where her husband was a vice president. This level of self-dealing represents an unforgiveable breach of trust that disqualifies Ms. Zumwalt from overseeing the expenditure of our tax dollars. She should resign immediately and cooperate fully with my office as I seek to determine whether any Oklahoma statutes were violated.”

Cindy Bird's office released this as part of her summary of the audit:

"Subsequent contracting and payments were transacted by OESC and signed by Shelley Zumwalt, who was appointed as the Executive Director of OESC in May 2020. By April 2022, Zumwalt had approved additional contracts and change orders to P2 totaling $8.5 Million.

"During this period, Zumwalt failed to disclose the fact that her husband, John Zumwalt, was employed as the Vice-President of P2. As the Director of OESC, Zumwalt was required to complete annual forms attesting that no related party transactions existed in the performance of her duties regarding the expenditure of funds. In three separate instances, Zumwalt checked ‘No’ on these forms.   

“Federal law requires that any entity receiving Federal grant money must disclose any conflict of interest in writing,” reported Auditor Byrd. “Any person who could possibly benefit from a Federal grant cannot be part of the selection, award, administration, or contracting of that money.”

"​In the Fall of 2022, legislation went into effect requiring appointees to heads of agencies to disclose any conflicts of interest to the Ethics Commission. Zumwalt finally disclosed her husband’s employment at P2 after she was named the Executive Director of Tourism in 2022."

Secretary Shelley Zumwalt released a statement in response:

"The Auditor's report is misleading. I've never had a conversation with Auditor Byrd or her team regarding this matter. A thorough review of this situation would have easily cleared up any confusion on the many sign-offs and disclosures that happened well before I was named executive director of OESC. Transparency has always been a top priority of mine, and I will not be resigning.

-Shelley Zumwalt, Secretary of Tourism, Wildlife & Heritage"