Legal Commentary

Party Time at Interior Dept.

By TChris

When critics talk about regulatory officials being in bed with those they regulate, the phrase is typically used metaphorically. At the Department of the Interior, however, it should be taken literally.

The Interior Department's Inspector General, who has been investigating the U.S. Minerals Management Service's Royalty-In-Kind program, said government employees who were supposed to be regulating the oil companies were engaging in drug use and having sex with industry contacts. "Several staff admitted to illegal drug use as well as illicit sexual encounters," Inspector General Earl Devaney wrote in a Sept. 9 memo to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne released today.

The Royalty-In-Kind program allows oil companies to pay royalties to the government in oil rather than cash. Between 2002 and 2006, "these employees accepted gifts and gratuities on at least 135 occasions from four major oil and gas companies with whom they were doing business" according to the Inspector General's report. [more ...]

The employees apparently felt a sense of entitlement. The Inspector General said:

"When confronted by our investigators, none of the employees involved displayed remorse."

Why should they? Unethical behavior and incompetent management is what the Bush administration expects of federal employees. This isn't a new or unnoticed problem at the Minerals Management Service's Royalty-In-Kind program.

The investigations are the latest installment in a series of scathing probes of the troubled program’s management and competence in recent years. While previous reports have focused on problems the agency has had in collecting millions of dollars owed to the Treasury, the new set of reports raises questions about the integrity and behavior of the agency’s officials.

The program is merely an echo of the Bush administration.

The culture of the organization “appeared to be devoid of both the ethical standards and internal controls sufficient to protect the integrity of this vital revenue-producing program,” one report said.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 10, 2008 (boomark / email).