Scott Pruitt has resigned as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency after a deluge of damaging revelations about his spending, travel and a property rental that prompted Republican politicians to distance themselves and question his continued effectiveness.
President Donald Trump announced in a tweet on Thursday that he had accepted the resignation. “Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job and I will always be thankful to him for this,” Mr Trump said.
It is a dramatic turn of fortune for Mr Pruitt, who was celebrated by conservatives for zealously attacking the EPA as Oklahoma's attorney general. Once he arrived in Washington, he acquired a national profile for moving to dismantle Obama era regulations on climate change and air pollution.
A former coal lobbyist, Andrew Wheeler, will take over the agency as acting administrator on Monday, Mr Trump said. Mr Wheeler was confirmed as the EPA’s No 2 official in April. Unlike his predecessor, he has a low-key approach, cultivated during years working in Washington – including a previous turn at the EPA and time on Capitol Hill serving under Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican.
Mr Pruitt’s departure is a victory for environmentalists and good government advocates who have campaigned against the EPA administrator’s conduct since his confirmation in February 2017. They cast him as an unabashed ally of corporate polluters and assailed what they called his ethical abuses.
At least 170 Democrats and four Republicans in the House and Senate had sought Mr Pruitt's removal amid allegations of ethical missteps and abuses of power, including his decision to rent a bedroom in a Capitol Hill condominium from a lobbyist for $50 a night under unusually generous terms.
Mr Pruitt, 50, also drew fire – and at least a dozen formal investigations – for frequent travel to his home state of Oklahoma, questionable spending decisions at the EPA, raises for two top aides and accusations some employees were sidelined after challenging the administrator’s decisions.
Recent disclosures also revealed the extent to which Mr Pruitt enlisted aides to conduct an array of personal errands, including helping him find housing in Washington, buying a second-hand mattress from the Trump International Hotel and pursuing a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wife. At least some of the work was conducted with EPA email and during working hours, potentially violating federal ethics rules that bar federal employees from using their public office for private gain and soliciting gifts from employees.
At least five political appointees, including three longtime Pruitt allies, left the agency as allegations mounted.
But the animosity he generated among liberal activists is matched by the fondness he inspired on the political right. For more than a year, that helped insulate him and gave him leverage within the White House – power he successfully used to help persuade Mr Trump to pull the US from the Paris climate agreement.
The president stood by him for months. He defended his EPA chief in an April 7 tweet proclaiming that “Pruitt is doing a great job. The president reiterated his confidence in the administrator on May 11 and again on June 6, saying the “EPA is doing really, really well” under Pruitt’s leadership. But by June 15, the president’s support had softened, with Trump saying he was “not happy” about some of Pruitt’s actions.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
