"A Culture Of Ethical Failure"

by hilzoy

From the NYT, the Interior Department's Inspector General seems to have found a lot of unusually blatant corruption:

"In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government’s largest sources of revenue other than taxes.

“A culture of ethical failure” besets the agency, Mr. Devaney wrote in a cover memo.

The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch."

Why am I not surprised?

Here's an account of just one of the officials involved:

"The report said that from April 2002 to June 2003, Mr. Smith improperly used his position with the royalty program to help a technical services firm seek deals with the same oil and gas companies. The services firm paid Mr. Smith more than $30,000 for asking the oil companies to hire it, the report said.

Mr. Smith requested and received approval to take on the outside work, but the report says he misled the office into thinking he would be performing technical consulting, rather than marketing the firm to companies with which he also conducted official business

The report accuses Mr. Smith of improperly accepting gifts from the oil and gas industry, of engaging in sex with two subordinates, and of using cocaine that he purchased from his secretary or her boyfriend several times a year between 2002 and 2005. He sometimes asked for the drugs and received them in his office during work hours, the report alleges.

The report also says that Mr. Smith lied to investigators about these and other incidents, and that he urged the two women subordinates to mislead the investigators as well."

One person has already pled guilty to a felony, and the reports recommend prosecuting another, as well as taking administrative action against several more, "including either firing them or banning them for life from certain positions." To give you a sense of how bad it is, the guy just described is not one of them.

Apparently, one of the reports also contains this memorable phrase: "sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length." Indeed.

It's an interesting image, but I wish no inspector general of our government had had occasion to write it.

Comments

[Margarita]

We need to get to the bottom of this, and the first step must be an unconditional grant of retroactive immunity. The American people deserve no less.

[El Cid]

Thank you, President George W. Caligula!

[cleek]

imagine what would happen if normal people got the idea that the government was in the business of offering sex; there'd be irritable lines of perverted, tumescent pensioners, at every Social Security office in the land.

Margarita is right. such a bold and decisive act will end our long national nightmare before it has a chance to get sticky.

[Bernard Yomtov]

Arms-length?

Sort of like King Midas. Attractive idea until you consider the consequences.

[Doctor Science]

That's not the NYT, that's Charlie Savage, aka The Last Journalist in America.

[Fraud Guy]

Is this one going to be a best seller, like the Meese Report?

[Whammer]

So, here is what needs to happen with this story. The R's are saying "Drill, drill, drill" and who is going to administer those leases? The Interior Dept, that's who.

We need to emphasize the connection -- they want more oil leases and to drill because they want to continue their sex/drug habit.

I know this is not quite in the Ob/Wi spirit, but still...........

Somewhat more seriously -- who does domestic drilling benefit? Small/medium drillers, equipment suppliers, etc. That is to say, prime GOP constituents. American public, not so much.

But that argument is too complex.

I can tell you with 100% confidence that if there was a sex/drug scandal in a Dem administration, and a key initiative of theirs depended on that very same department where the scandal originated, everybody would be all over it all the time.

[jesurgislac]

Apparently, one of the reports also contains this memorable phrase: "sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length." Indeed.

Depends how the two of them like to have sex, surely? By definition, mutual jerk-offs are at arms-length...

Sorry, couldn't resist. Probably should have tried harder, though.

[Hartmut]

Obviously there was just some confusion about the difference between drilling and screwing. Oil companies drill, the taxpayer is screwed, that's how it is supposed to work.

[Ugh]

The report accuses Mr. Smith of improperly accepting gifts from the oil and gas industry, of engaging in sex with two subordinates,

Uhhh, the report accuses Mr. Smith of committing felony sexual assault:

We interviewed yet another [Royalty in Kind] RIK employee who stated that in approximately 2005, Smith "insisted" that she ride in his car from one business establishment to another, and she agreed.

This employee stated that Smith "took the long way" between the two businesses, and during the drive, he asked to go to her nearby home, but she refused. "He wanted to have sex; I said no, " she recalled. Smith then asked if she would have oral sex with him, but she told him she did not want to. She said Smith then "basically forced [her] head into his lap," and she performed oral sex on him while he drove the car slowly. She said that she resisted Smith when he pulled her head into his lap, but Smith did not relent and continued to pull her head down. She said Smith was "real persistent" but not violent and she did not feel as though she had been sexually assaulted by Smith. She stated that it was difficult for her to have sex with Smith because he supervised her and RIK, but she "felt like [she] could get fired," so she did what Smith wanted. She said she was "scared" that if she did not do what Smith wanted her to do, it could possibly affect her employment. She said this was the only time she had ever had sex with Smith.

[drilling rig]

i am not sure what to thing about this at all. this is so crazy.

oilfield equipment and products

Oilfield drilling rig equipment

[Denver Mortgage]

I am not surprised at all

Denver Mortgage
ColoradoSpringsMortgage