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Last year, the State Department spent $ 52,701 on motorized curtains for Nikki Haley's official residence as ambassador to the United Nations, while the department reduced its budget and froze its recruitments.
Window coverings for the Manhattan government residence included $ 29,900 for curtains and $ 22,801 for "electrical equipment and supplies" to open and close them automatically, according to the contract, reported by The New York Times.
The curtains were installed in the First Avenue penthouse from March to August of last year, but plans for the purchase were made in 2016, under the Obama administration, and Haley has nothing to do with this decision .
During the purchase and installation of the curtains, Rex W. Tillerson, first Secretary of State for President Donald Trump, imposed a hiring freeze, reduced the department's budget by 31% and expelled high-ranking diplomats.
"How can you, on the one hand, tell diplomats that basic needs can not be met and, on the other hand, spend more than $ 50,000 for a custom curtain system for the company? 39, ambassador to the UN? " the Obama administration, asked in the Times article.
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Patrick Kennedy, a senior State Department official during the Obama administration, defended the curtains. He told the Times that window coverings "would probably be used for years" and were necessary for safety and entertainment purposes.
Haley is the first American ambassador to live in the official residence. His predecessors stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, but the State Department decided in 2016 to transfer the ambassador for security reasons. The nearly 6,000-square-foot apartment has already been listed for rent at $ 58,000 a month, according to the Times.
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