Washington (CNN) Scott Pruitt, his aides and security agents wasted nearly $124,000 in federal funds on premium travel when he was Environmental Protection Agency administrator, according to an inspector general report released Thursday.

The 84-page report says the $123,942 figure is out of a total of $985,037 spent on 40 trips between March 1 and December 31, 2017.

The IG says the spending was "excessive" because it was improperly approved "without sufficient justification" or by someone who did not have authority to approve it.

The EPA took issue with the characterization that the spending was "excessive," and rejected the inspector general's recommendation that the agency ask Pruitt and others to pay back that amount.

Pruitt took the top EPA job in February 2017, and his early months in office were marked by frequent taxpayer-funded travel to his home state of Oklahoma. That and other ethical scandals would ultimately lead to his resignation in the summer of 2018.

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