by D. Cupples | According to an inspector general's report, people working for the U.S. Department of Interior have been naughty. (B-N Politics and NY Times).
For example, one Interior official arranged to give a big contract to an
ex-employee to do basically the same job he'd done before he retired.
Interior employees also reportedly took gifts from, had sex with, and shared illegal drugs with some of the same oil-industry folks that Interior was supposed to be regulating.
Because sex and drugs are involved, most media are all ears. What bothers me is what's being left out of (and assumed in) some media reports.
For example, why isn't former Bureau of Minerals Management Director Johnnie Burton being spotlighted?
I first heard of Ms. Burton in May 2007, when she was apparently forced to resign because of her failure to pressure oil companies to pay the royalties they owe us taxpayers for oil drilled on government lands.
What incentive did Ms. Burton have for allowing the oil companies to get away with underpaying royalties? Might she have been caught up in the sex, drugs, or other inducements that oil execs offered?
Is she being protected, while other naughty Minerals Management folks are being hung out to dry?
Even Jed Clampett knew better than to give his oil away, and if oil companies had to buy oil-rich land at market value, they'd likely pay a lot more than the measly royalties they'd agreed to pay us taxpayers.
This is not a new issue: oil companies have a history of underpaying royalties. By 2001, fifteen oil companies paid a combined $438 million to settle Justice Department suits over under-paid royalties, including Exxon, Texaco, and Pennzoil.
Regarding media coverage, two days ago, CNN blindly reported:
"Randall Luthi, head of the Minerals Management Service at the Interior Department, said the public had not suffered financial losses as a result of the employees' behavior."
It's downright bizarre that CNN let Mr. Luthi's line hang there without bothering to question it. First, the New York Times reported two days ago:
"A report from Mr. Devaney’s office [the inspector general] earlier this year found that the program had frequently allowed companies that purchased the oil and gas to revise their bids downward after they won contracts. It documented 118 such occasions that cost taxpayers about $4.4 million in all."
In short, we taxpayers have lost money (at least $4.4 million, though I suspect much more).
Second, royalty under-payment likely is part of this sex/drugs/gifts scandal. If oil execs were spending money to provide Interior Department folks with sex/drugs/etc, the companies likely wanted a return on their investment. What better return could Interior folks give than going slack on royalty collection?
Wanting to end on a sleazy note, I'll note this: many people are now hearing about the sex/drugs for the first
time, but it's not new. Talking Points Memo reported on the scandal in January 2007.
Other Buck Naked Politics Posts
* GOP Threatens to Shut Down Govt. Over Oil?
* Interior Officials Allowed Oil Companies to Underpay Royalties
* Fact Check Rips into McCain for Misrepresenting Stuff
* Lehman Might Need Bailout, Might Not Get it
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