MMS: The Problems by the Numbers

Since Department of the Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney has said that the Minerals Management Service (MMS) is unauditable by forensic accountants--and it's getting hard to find fresh, new things to say for "more news on scumbags at MMS" themed posts--I thought it would be helpful to reevaluate the past few months events quantitatively:

- Due to problems in MMS's offshore drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico, the Government Accountability Office estimated taxpayers could stand to lose as much as $53 billion in royalties.  GAO also has said that their collections of oil and gas royalties still needs comprehensive reassessment, though they haven't assigned a dollar figure to the existing problems.

- In the past 15 years, states and private citizens have recovered around $11 billion related to underpaid royalties.

- Nearly 1/3 of the entire Royalty-In-Kind (RIK) staff in Lakewood, Colorado socialized with and received a wide array of gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies with whom RIK was conducting official business.

- Jimmy Mayberry, former Special Assistant to the Associate Director of Minerals Revenue Management at MMS, was given a $2,500 fine for a felony violation of the criminal conflict of interest law.  Mayberry's firm collected $788,000 worth of contracts.

- We've also heard that (1) Greg Smith lost his private sector job the day that the Interior Department Inspector General report concerning his behavior was released to the public.

-- Mandy Smithberger