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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration failed to follow ethics rules last year when it dismissed academic members of Environmental Protection Agency advisory boards and replaced them with appointees connected to industry, a federal watchdog agency concluded Monday.

The agency, the Government Accountability Office, found that the administration “did not consistently ensure” that appointees to E.P.A. advisory panels met federal ethics requirements. It also concluded that Trump administration officials violated E.P.A. guidelines by not basing the appointments on recommendations made by career staff members.

Scott Pruitt, President Trump’s first E.P.A. administrator who resigned last year amid ethics scandals, remade the agency’s science advisory panels because he said they did not fairly represent the United States geographically, or the industries affected by regulations.

The percentage of academic scientists serving on one E.P.A. panel, the Scientific Advisory Board, dropped 27 percent during the first year of the Trump administration. Academics on the agency’s Board of Scientific Counselors dropped 45 percent. Investigators found that the percentage of academics on E.P.A. advisory boards remained stable around 83 percent during the first year President Barack Obama was in office .