WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s approach to his wife’s travel and activities sparked concerns among the department’s ethics officials, according to a report issued this month by Interior’s inspector general office.

The report determined that staff in the department’s solicitor office “approved Lolita Zinke and other individuals to ride in Government vehicles with Secretary Zinke” although Interior policy prohibited this practice. The employee who authorized the move told investigators that “she routinely advised” Zinke’s aides “that it would be ‘cleanest’ and ‘lowest risk’ if she did not ride with him” but could find a way to justify it.

This summer, Zinke changed Interior’s policy so that family members could ride with him.

Zinke confirmed to investigators that he had directed his staff to research the possibility of giving his wife a volunteer job at Interior, a move that one ethics official objected to on the grounds that it was designed so that Zinke wouldn’t “have to pay” for his wife’s travel. Zinke subsequently “denied that it was an effort to circumvent the requirement to reimburse the DOI for her travel,” the report states.

The new findings came after a chaotic week at the Department of Interior. Hours before the report was released, Interior Department officials said they did not approve the hiring of a political appointee as their agency’s acting watchdog, calling the announcement of her move by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson “100 percent false information.”

The backtracking on Suzanne Israel Tufts’ move drew widespread scrutiny, raising questions about how and why she supposedly was chosen to lead Interior’s inspector general’s office, which is conducting at least four investigations into Zinke’s activities. Last week, investigators issued two subpoenas for documents to entities tied to the probes, according to two individuals familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said the new IG report shows Zinke had run his travel decisions by the relevant authorities at the department.

“The Inspector General report proves what we have known all along: the secretary follows all relevant laws and regulations and that all of his travel was reviewed and approved by career ethics officials and solicitors prior to travel,” she said in an email.

Swift added that previous secretaries had received “the same exact legal advice” from the solicitor’s office and that the department’s motor vehicle policy “has been updated to reflect the reality of the long standing situation.”

But critics of the administration said the report, which also found that taxpayers paid $25,000 to send an unarmed security detail with the Zinkes on their vacation to Turkey and Greece last summer, documents a breach of the public trust.

“This report shows Secretary Zinke’s dogged determination to use his office for personal gain, even going so far as to tell Interior’s top lawyer to lie to the public to justify his wife’s travel,” said Jen Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, an advocacy group. “Secretary Zinke owes the American people an apology — and a refund.”

The inquiry also found the secretary had invited two individuals who had hosted a fundraiser for him when he served as a congressman to go on an official trip to California’s Channel Islands, at government expense, and had not notified Interior lawyers about the fact that they were former political contributors.

Top White House officials said they had not been made aware of the plan to move Tufts to serve as acting inspector general at Interior. She is a lawyer from Queens who worked on President Donald Trump’s campaign and has served as HUD’s assistant secretary for administration since December.

“Ms. Tufts is not employed by the Department and no decision was ever made to move her to Interior,” Swift said in a statement.

And in a striking public rebuke of another Cabinet agency led by a close friend of Zinke’s, Swift wrote that HUD “sent out an email that had 100 percent false information in it.” She affirmed that Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall is still in the job.

In an email with the subject line “A Fond Farewell,” Carson wrote to HUD staffers: “It is with mixed emotions that I announce that Suzanne Israel Tufts, our Assistant Secretary for Administration, has decided to leave HUD to become Acting Inspector General at the Department of Interior.”

“I am extremely grateful to Suzanne for her service to HUD and am confident that she will thrive in her new role,” Carson added.

Swift said Tufts was referred to Interior officials by the White House “as a potential candidate” for a position in the inspector general’s office. Swift did not say what position. “At the end of the day, she was not offered a job at Interior.”

HUD officials did not respond to a request for comment. Tufts could not be reached.

The about-face came after mounting criticism by lawmakers on Capitol Hill and watchdog groups of what appeared to be an unorthodox arrangement between the agencies to bring in a political appointee to oversee Kendall. President Barack Obama nominated Kendall for the position of inspector general, but the Senate never voted on it. Tufts, meanwhile, is a former consultant who has no experience as an investigator and would have been leading one of the government’s most active inspector general offices.

Kendall is conducting at least four investigations of Zinke’s conduct, including his involvement in a Montana land deal and his activities in connection with two Connecticut tribes’ application to open a casino.

Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt said department leaders were scouting for someone the president could nominate to serve permanently.