Thursday, September 11, 2008

Interior Department Inspector General Reveals Ethics Violations in Minerals Management Service

Yesterday the Denver Post reported that Department of Interior workers in Washington and the Denver metropolitan area engaged in illicit sex and drug abuse with oil company employees and accepted thousands of dollars in gifts while managing energy contracts, according to three reports released yesterday by the Dept. of Interior's Inspector General. You can read the Denver Post article here.

According to the reports, employees at the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service Royalty in Kind division violated ethics rules repeatedly from 2002 to 2006. You can find redacted versions of the reports concerning former Lakewood (Colorado) division head Gregory W. Smith, the MMS Oil Marketing Group in Lakewood, Colorado, and Federal Business Solutions Contracts.

You can find out more about the Interior Department's Inspector General by going to his office's website, where you can search for additional reports available online. For more information about what federal inspectors general do, see this government web page devoted to the topic.

If you'd like to do more exploration of government agencies' interactions with oil companies, we recommend that you check out our subject guide on energy.

No comments:

Post a Comment