Lawmakers assail Minerals Management Service

[charlesg]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR2010052602787.html

Lawmakers assail Minerals Management Service
By Perry Bacon Jr., David A. Fahrenthold and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer

Members of Congress from both parties Wednesday sharply criticized the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service a day after the release of a report showing that the agency's inspectors routinely took gifts such as college football tickets from the companies they were supposed to be policing. Lawmakers unloaded about their concerns during a hearing by the House Natural Resources Committee on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico...

"It is time to abolish MMS and start anew with a new agency and new people," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said in a letter Wednesday to Salazar. "When you see a culture developing within a department, then you have a very serious problem," said Rep. Dale E. Kildee (D-Mich.). "We want to put some people in jail perhaps, but putting people in jail does not undo the damage that was done."

Salazar called the conduct described in the report "scandalous and reprehensible" but said it stemmed from incidents before his tenure. He said people had already been fired for such offenses and emphasized a "zero tolerance" policy to such violations. "When inspectors are taking trips on company paid jets, I think that is wrong," he said, noting that a culture that allowed such behavior was "something we have worked hard to change."... Salazar promised "major changes" at MMS, including a dissolution of the agency and reassignment of its functions to three new entities. In addition to the inspector general's probe, he said he has asked the National Marine Board, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, to conduct an independent review of MMS's inspection program for offshore facilities, with results due this fall...

At one point in the hearing, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) challenged Salazar, a former senator from Colorado, about his criticism of the MMS's actions during the administration of President George W. Bush. "I don't understand why you and others keep harping on what the MMS did or didn't do in the previous administration," Lamborn told Salazar. "You've been in charge for more than a year now." Salazar insisted that "we are talking about the here and now." He told Lamborn, "Unlike the prior administration, this is not the candy store of the oil and gas kingdom that you and others were a part of."

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/us/25mms.html

At least seven inspectors cited in the report as having been involved in inappropriate or illegal activities were still employed by the agency when the report was completed in March. Interior officials said the employees cited in the report would be placed on administrative leave...

[Scuba]

1. Already?

:sarcasm:

[robinblue]

2. Why haven't heads rolled? already!!