Former OMB Director Linked to IRS Scandal Located in South Africa

Things are a little hot at home

Amid new revelations about the IRS targeting scandal, the Obama administration's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said Tuesday that former OMB head Jeffrey Zients' extended absence from the United States is due to a family vacation.

OMB's statement came after The Daily Caller reported that former leader Jeffrey Zients met at the White House with key figures at the Internal Revenue Service just before news broke that the IRS was targeting conservative nonprofit groups for abusive audits and delays.

Zients has still not returned from an overseas exile that began after his departure from the Obama administration in April, two weeks before the IRS scandal broke. A White House source told The Daily Caller that Zients' absence from the country has been noticeable and concerning.

"Mr. Zients' wife's family lives in South Africa. He is visiting them now, as he and his family do every summer," an OMB spokesperson told Fox News in a statement Tuesday. The agency did not address the concerns raised by the White House source, nor did it provide either the date Zients began his overseas trip or the date he is expected to return.