IG report: Meth, porn use by drilling agency staff

[sabra]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) - Staff members at an agency that oversees offshore drilling accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography, according to an Interior Department report alleging a culture of cronyism between regulators and the industry.

In at least one case, an inspector for the Minerals Management Service admitted using crystal methamphetamine and said he might have been under the influence of the drug the next day at work, according to the report by the acting inspector general of the Interior Department.

The report cites a variety of violations of federal regulations and ethics rules at the agency's Louisiana office. Previous inspector general investigations have focused on inappropriate behavior by the royalty-collection staff in the agency's Denver office.

The report adds to the climate of frustration and criticism facing the Obama administration in the monthlong oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, although it covers actions before the spill. Millions of gallons of oil are gushing into the Gulf, endangering wildlife and the livelihoods of fishermen, as scrutiny intensifies on a lax regulatory climate.

The report began as a routine investigation, the acting inspector general, Mary Kendall, said in a cover letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose department includes the agency.

"Unfortunately, given the events of April 20 of this year, this report had become anything but routine, and I feel compelled to release it now," she wrote.

Read more: http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=12539892

[charlesg]

1. Nice job - Free meals and trips and watch porn all day

They didn't even have to write their inspection reports. The oil companies wrote them.

[Ian David]

2. Of course the oil companies wrote the reports. The inspectors were too high on meth.

You ever read something written by a tweaker? http://twitter.com/tedhaggard7

[zumba da geek]

3. What else is new

MMS is like any other agency in charge of resource extraction oversight. They all get kickbacks of one form or another. And most are part of the revolving door between industry and govt. One week they work for us (supposedly) and the next for ----- (fill in the blank)

[ShortnFiery]

4. And Salazar still has a job? The Peter Principle on Steroids. eom

[hedgehog]

5. I want to know how many staff members were originally

political appointees who burrowed in to the Civil Service ranks when an administration changed.

[PfcHammer]

6. That's hawt

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Porn AND meth? One-upping the SEC I see? Good job guys.

Holy shit.

I shouldn't be amazed. I really shouldn't. But here we are...

[mikelgb]

8. well you can't drill while flaccid

[corpseratemedia]

10. DUzy!

[boppers]

12. +1

Dark and saucy!

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Not to mention being in bed together..LITERALLY>>>>

http://www.politicolnews.com/sexcapades-mms-and-oil/

Sexcapades-MMS and Oil

May 29, 2010 In 2008 during the Presidential Election many speculated who would take over for Dick Cheney who’s hands were dirty with oil money. All during that time and prior government officials from MMS and other departments were having sex, taking drugs and accepting bribes from big oil company executives.

Investigations from 2008 have not fired, or charged these government employees with any wrong doing even today as the millions of gallons of oil continue to turn the Gulf of Mexico into an oil refinery. These same people are still employed at MMS and the Interior Department where rigging contracts, gifts for favorable leases, bribery, graft and a culture of abuses brought us to the BP Oil disaster of 2010.

Minerals Management Services -Sex, Lies, Bribes and Disasters

Of course Dick Cheney and George Bush thought this was perfectly all right and capitalism in the oil business was king. After all Wall Street had the freedom of no regulations why not the oil business also?
The ban on offshore drilling which many opposed due to the dangers of spills was lifted by one George W. Bush while he was in office.

The investigation had evidence of promiscuous sex by government and the oil trade including the drugs used during their liaisons. These government agencies were described as whore houses who sold themselves for the pleasures of free trips, golf memberships, dinners, booze, drugs and any paybacks available. The oil companies included BP, Chevron, and Shell to name the top fornicators of American oil.

<snip>

[lunasun]

11. Yuck!Both words' Dick Cheney 'and 'sexcapade' within 10 words of each other ..barf nt

[defendandprotect]

13. This is the corruption Bush put in place and RW drags along with itself wherever

it goes --

Oil industry is thriving on this kind of corruption --

And this is the stuff which is undermining our stability as a nation ---

whether Wall Street or oil industry -- it's crime.

Whether FCC and monopoly ownership of media -- it's crime.

Whether Pentagon/MIC or Halliburton -- Blackwater -- it's crime.

FEC -- and failure to rid us of hackable computer voting -- it's crime.

Our government agencies have for decades been polluted by this right wing corruption

-- Monsanto's FDA -- EPA -- all of this has to be repaired before we can count on anything

being done properly!

[Judi Lynn]

14. US oil oversight officials took gifts from industry

Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur

US oil oversight officials took gifts from industry
May 25, 2010, 20:31 GMT

Washington - Federal officials responsible for inspecting and licensing offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico accepted lavish trips from offshore oil companies, according to an official federal report released Tuesday.

The report contributed to the growing image problem of a Minerals Management Service (MMS) that allowed oil companies like BP to forego environmental reports and safety inspections while keeping a cozy relationship with the industry. The report, which covered violations up to 2008, also found violations of pornography on government computers and illegal drugs use.

It came as photo images from the Gulf of Mexico showed birds dying amid oil-covered mangroves and thick soupy crude oil washing more than 16 kilometres inland into ecologically fragile marshes. The ruptured BP well off the coast of Louisiana has been pouring crude oil into the Gulf since April 20.

The report from the inspector general for the Department of the Interior found that MMS employees in the Lake Charles district office attended skeet-shooting events, hunting and fishing trips, golf tournaments, crawfish boils and Christmas parties sponsored by offshore oil companies.


Read more: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/usa/news/article_1558445.php/US-oil-oversight-officials-took-gifts-from-industry-Extra

[aquart]

15. And what did we do to them when we found out?

Are they in jail?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

16. Doubled their pension?

:shrug:

[joanmj]

17. not a surprise...

now go stop the gusher...

[Proletariatprincess]

18. NOTHING.

The USA is capable of doing nothing to solve problems that effect the public interest. Nothing will happen to change that. The system is corrupt and dysfunctional. Decades old problems like the Pentagon waste, the failure of the war on drugs, don't ask don't tell, the health care crisis, social security, crisis of the infrastructure, useless wars that we are losing and should be ending....and the list goes on and on. We all know about these problems. Congress knows about them too. They hold hearings. But there are no solutions forthcoming...and their won't be anytime soon. No knows how or is willing to resolve problems anymore.
The USA is toast.

[joanmj]

19. p.s.

DAY 36...