hree days after an inspector general's report found potential improprieties by Vice President Al Gore's campaign manager, Gore still has not read the report.
The government investigation found questionable financial dealings by Tony Coelho, the former California congressman who served as US commissioner general for the 1998 world's fair in Lisbon.
''He's doing a great job,'' Gore said. ''Tony Coelho's making it possible for me to be out there.''
The report alleged that Coelho improperly used $210,000 in donated airline tickets, unnecessarily kept an expensive chauffeur-driven Mercedes, and hired his niece for a $2,500-a-month job.
It said Coelho also obtained a personal loan of $300,000 from a Portuguese bank for a private foundation to use for a memorial sculpture, listing it as a liability on the USIA's records. The US government could be responsible if the loan is not paid, the inspector general said.
Coelho's lawyer, Stanley Brand, said his client did not violate any laws in the unsalaried job. Brand acknowledged ''there may have been management lapses,'' as in many government contract programs, but he contended that most of the negative findings were aimed at USIA officials rather than Coelho personally.
Though Gore has not read the report, he said ''it will be reviewed carefully.''
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
