Inspector Finds Broad Failures in Oil Program (To Collect for Drilling Fed Lands)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Daily News

The Interior Department’s program to collect billions of dollars annually from oil and gas companies that drill on federal lands is troubled by mismanagement, ethical lapses and fears of retaliation against whistle-blowers, the department’s chief independent investigator has concluded.

The report, a result of a yearlong investigation, grew out of complaints by four auditors at the agency, who said that senior administration officials had blocked them from recovering money from oil companies that underpaid the government.

The report stopped short of accusing top agency officials of wrongdoing, concluding that the whistle-blowers were sometimes unaware of other efforts under way to recover the missing money and that they sometimes simply disagreed with top management.

But it offered a sharp description of failures at the Minerals Management Service, the agency within the Interior Department responsible for collecting about $10 billion a year in royalties on oil and gas. Many of the issues, including the complaints by whistle-blowers, were initially reported last year by The New York Times.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/business/26oil.html?hp

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Surprise, surprise - NOT!

[acmavm]

1. Oil and gas companies and families.Make the 'mafia' look like the

Mickey Mouse Club.

[Turbineguy]

2. There was a time

when ordinary citizens could participate in the so-called oil lottery. Every month people would draw for leases. I recall the cost was something like $1 per chance. Of course having the great unwashed participate was a bad idea so the cost was increased to $40 in 1982. Thanks must go to Saint Ronzo for that one!