DOI IG Identifies a Culture of Substance Abuse and Promiscuity at MMS

Building upon earlier reporting done by the Denver Post, the AP has announced more about the upcoming Department of Interior (DOI) Inspector General (IG) Report on the Minerals Management Service (MMS).  DOI IG Earl Devaney's investigation revealed a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" in the Denver MMS office.  Notable excerpts from the AP story:

The alleged transgressions involve 13 Interior Department employees in Denver and Washington. Their alleged improprieties include rigging contracts, working part-time as private oil consultants, and having sexual relationships with--and accepting golf and ski trips and dinners from--oil company employees.

...

The reports describe a fraternity house atmosphere inside the Denver Minerals Management Service office responsible for marketing the oil and gas that energy companies barter to the government instead of making cash royalty payments for drilling on federal lands.

And to think we thought relationships with industry were inappropriate before.  This just goes to show how badly oversight is needed at MMS.

-- Mandy Smithberger

UPDATE: We wanted to give a shout-out to Sen. Bingaman (D-NM) for asking tough guy DOI-IG Earl Devaney and his crack investigators to uncover this mess.

UPDATE 2:  The DOI IG reports can be found here, here, and here.

Comments

[Posted on: Sep 19, 2008 at 06:10 PM]

I am wondering what the bureaucrats think at MMS.
-------------------------------------------------------
Andrew William

Addiction Treatment

[Posted on: Sep 11, 2008 at 10:55 PM]

Could these MMS folks have mistakenly thought they were in training to be Democrat governor of New York?

[Posted on: Sep 11, 2008 at 09:32 AM]

Vito,

Can you tell me why you don't like the term bureaucrats? Is there another term that should be used?

I am really curious to know.

Sincerely,

GovernmentUncovered.com

[Posted on: Sep 11, 2008 at 04:36 AM]

The Savage New York Times article on this is definitely worth linking to.

[Posted on: Sep 10, 2008 at 09:50 PM]

I saw the post above : " I am wondering what the bureaucrats think at MMS"

I am willing to safely bet that those involved in the wrongdoing were entrenched high-level government employees such as at the GS-13, GS-14 and GS-15 levels and perhaps some career senior executive servants. Many of them may have been more emboldened as their behavior was condoned. This facilitated their tendency to become less and less ethical.

[Posted on: Sep 10, 2008 at 08:34 PM]

I don't like the term bureaucrats and I don't like the relationship of the oil companies with the MMS.

[Posted on: Sep 10, 2008 at 05:50 PM]

I am wondering what the bureaucrats think at MMS.

www.GovernmentUncovered.com

[Posted on: Sep 10, 2008 at 05:48 PM]

I am curious what other people at MMS know about this. I am willing to bet that others raised the issue early and were ignored.