 These measures prompted critics to charge that Pruitt was running the agency in secret.Five officials at the EPA – four of them high-ranking – were reassigned, demoted or pushed out of the EPA after they raised concerns about Pruitt's management of the agency, in particular Pruitt's expenditures.Several of these officials played a key role in reviewing Pruitt's travel plans; on occasions they put a halt to unjustifiably expensive travel plans.