The NY Times reports on another scandal inside the Bush Administration. This time it involves the Interior Department and the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in oil and gas royalties annually.
In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found
Eight officials in the royalty program accepted gifts from energy companies whose value exceeded limits set by ethics rules — including golf, ski and paintball outings; meals and drinks; and tickets to a Toby Keith concert, a Houston Texans football game and a Colorado Rockies baseball game.
The investigation also concluded that several of the officials “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.â€
The investigation separately found that the program’s manager mixed official and personal business. In sometimes lurid detail, the report also accuses him of having intimate relations with two subordinates, one of whom regularly sold him cocaine.
The culture of the organization “appeared to be devoid of both the ethical standards and internal controls sufficient to protect the integrity of this vital revenue-producing program,†one report said.
Read more Of course, Lucy Q. Denett, the highest-ranking official criticized in the reports and the former associate director of minerals revenue management, retired earlier this year as the inquiry was progressing.