My nephew just pointed out to me an article about a huge scandal at the agency in the Department of the Interior responsible for collecting oil royalties. This scandal makes Teapot Dome look like an afternoon tea. Here are a few key items from the LA Times Article:
Federal investigators said Wednesday that an Interior Department group in charge of collecting oil and natural gas royalties was compromised for years by employees who improperly accepted gifts from oil company employees, handed out sweetheart deals, had sex with subordinates and industry contacts and used illegal drugs.
Among the allegations:
* Government employees routinely socialized with industry representatives, having drinks and meals and attending golf outings, a ski trip, a Toby Keith concert and other excursions. Two of the 19 employees cited had received gifts on more than 135 occasions from four major oil and gas companies. Devaney noted that "between 2002 and 2006, nearly one-third of the entire RIK (Royalty-In-Kind) staff socialized with, and received a wide array of gifts and gratuities from, oil and gas companies with whom RIK was conducting official business."
* Two employees engaged in "brief sexual relationships" with customers but didn't recuse themselves from handling work involving those companies and officials. One employee said she didn't disclose the contact or consider it improper because "she did not consider a 'one-night stand' to be a personal relationship" and didn't think it would affect government business. Devaney noted: "Sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length." One program official allegedly had sex with two subordinates and bought cocaine, sometimes at his office.
* In some cases officials had "inappropriate" outside employment with entities doing business with the Royalty in Kind group, the reports said. A former program director received more than $30,000 from an industry consulting firm in return for marketing the company to various oil and gas companies doing business with the government agency. A former Minerals Management Service associate director helped direct lucrative consulting contracts to a firm run by two members of the agency who had retired less than a year earlier.
These are just three of many allegations regarding the agency in charge of awarding oil drilling contracts and collecting royalties from the oil companies. This should be a national scandal, but I would not even know it from reading blogs and watching the MSM. Why are we hearing about this instead of about lipstick on a pig?
More information about the scandal can be found at the
LA Times website.
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