NYT: U.S. Official Overseeing Oil Program Faces Inquiry

[Eugene]

U.S. Official Overseeing Oil Program Faces Inquiry

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: December 30, 2006

WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 — The Justice Department is investigating whether the director
of a multibillion-dollar oil-trading program at the Interior Department has been paid
as a consultant for oil companies hoping for contracts.

The director of the program and three subordinates, all based in Denver, have been
transferred to different jobs and have been ordered to cease all contacts with the oil
industry until the investigation is completed some time next spring, according to
officials involved.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation had not
been announced publicly, said investigators were worried that senior government
officials had been steering huge oil-trading contracts to favored companies.

-snip-

If the allegations prove correct, they would constitute a major new blot on the
Interior Department’s much-criticized effort to properly collect royalties on vast
amounts of oil and gas produced on land or in coastal waters.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/30/washington/30royalty.html?ref=business

The official mentioned is Gregory Smith, director of the royalty-in-kind program
at the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service.

[Trajan]

1. Hey ... Just another BFEE Official doing his job ....

Gonna get a Presidential Medal, that boy ....

[pinniped]

2. Ya, the asshole and vice asshole.

senior government officials had been steering huge oil-trading contracts to favored companies.
i/i]

[OregonBlue]

3. So the Justice Department will have an on-going investigation. Dems will not

be allowed to call anyone before committees. I suspect we'll see lots of investigations that go nowhere but tie up key witnesses.