Report on Drilling Regulations finds 'Culture' of Accepting Oil Company Gifts

[Geee]

The Hill:



Report on drilling regulators finds 'culture' of accepting oil company gifts
By Ben Geman - 05/25/10 12:17 PM ET

A new report by the Interior Department’s acting inspector general describes federal offshore drilling regulators in Louisiana receiving gifts from oil and gas companies before 2007 and includes allegations that companies were allowed to fill out their own inspection forms.

The report explores the Lake Charles, La., office of the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency under fire for lax oversight of offshore drilling.

“During the course of our investigation, a number of MMS employees at the Lake Charles, LA district office admitted to attending sporting events prior to 2007 in which oil and gas production companies sponsored teams, as well as receiving lunches accepting gifts,” the report released Tuesday by Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall reads.



“Through numerous interviews, we found that a culture of accepting gifts from oil and gas companies was prevalent throughout the MMS Lake Charles office,” the report adds.

But it also finds that after an MMS supervisor in New Orleans was investigated and later fired for accepting gifts in January of 2007, “this behavior appears to have drastically declined.”

Scrutiny of MMS has grown since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began more than a month ago. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar this month announced he’s splitting MMS into separate agencies, citing “conflicting missions” between its activities to spur offshore energy development, collection of billions of dollars in leasing and royalty revenues, and regulation of safety and environmental protection.

The report also notes that a confidential source told investigators some MMS inspectors “allowed oil and gas production company personnel located on the platform to fill out inspection forms.”

“The forms would then be completed or signed by the inspector and turned in for review,” the report adds, noting the confidential source said company staff would complete the forms using pencils and inspectors would write over them with ink before submitting them.

The report states that the IG’s office reviewed over 500 files and found a “small number with pencil and ink variations” but could not determine whether there were any “fraudulent alterations.”

The report also finds that in the summer of 2008, an MMS inspector conducted inspections of a company’s offshore platform while “in the process of negotiating and later accepting employment with the company.”

Kendall has been added to the witness list at Wednesday's scheduled House Natural Resources Committee hearing on offshore drilling and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Salazar is also slated to testify.

The findings are the latest in a series of damaging reports about federal offshore regulators. “It’s past time for MMS to stop acting as a farm team for the industry - the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion is proof that this isn’t just a game,” Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) said in a statement on the report.

In one case, a 2008 report by Interior’s then-inspector general, Earl Devaney, found a “culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” at the agency’s Denver office. The report said that MMS officials used drugs and had sex with energy company representatives.



The 2008 report was about the royalty-in-kind program, in which companies provided oil and natural gas directly to Interior in lieu of cash royalties. Salazar announced the termination of the program last year.

Salazar, in a statement Tuesday, emphasized that the newly released report describes actions that occurred under the prior administration, noting it lays out “reprehensible activities of employees of MMS between 2000 and 2008.” 



But Salazar said he has asked acting IG Kendall to expand her investigation to determine whether any of the bad behavior continued after he implemented new ethics rules in 2009.

[SrWoodchuck]

Geee! Thanks for posting!

 

I am OUTRAGED!!!!!

 

You go, Kenny!

 

Along with all these oil corporations making their obscene profits off the backs of poor Americans, I want documented in a BIG BOOK, every single Senator & Representative who ever flew a junket or accepted gifts, or went on a paid vacation from a lobbyist......and IF there is any room left.....all the Big Pharma, AMA, insurance & especially Union payoffs made by Obama & ilk.

 

We'll call it the "Big Book of Bribery"..........or "Gigantic Gazette of Graft"...........

 

or "Report on the Targeted Redistribution of Wealth to Promote Positive Response"...for those PC minded souls.