Interior IG: Senior execs 'immune' from punishment

The Interior Department is riddled with serious management flaws, including a culture that lacks accountability, a minerals service notoriously inept at writing oil and gas drilling leases, computer security vulnerabilities and weakness in law enforcement divisions, the department's inspector general said Friday.

Interior IG Earl Devaney appeared along with the Government Accountability Office's director of natural resources and environment, Robin Nazzaro, before the House Natural Resources Committee to update lawmakers on the status of oversight at the agency. It was the first time Devaney had testified before the committee since 2000, he said.

"This oversight hearing is the first in what is planned as an ongoing effort in the weeks and months ahead to examine the agency across the board," said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the committee. "I am committed to pursuing an aggressive and comprehensive hearing schedule to delve into a host of matters that are plaguing the Interior Department."

Presenting lawmakers with an overview of the issues uncovered by his office, Devaney touched on the highly publicized 1998 and 1999 oil and gas lease errors that could end up costing taxpayers as much as $10 billion. But he described numerous other problems within the broad, decentralized agencies under the Interior umbrella.

Describing what he said was one of the more serious problems, Devaney told lawmakers, "The failure of department officials to remain at arm's length from prohibited sources is pervasive." In the last two years, his office has found inappropriate gifts of golf outings, dinners, hunting trips, concert tickets and box seats at sporting events, as well as other favors and access privileges, all of which he said violated official standards of ethics for federal employees.

Inspectors also found that supervisors generally received lighter punishments than lower ranked employees, and Senior Executive Service members were "remarkably immune to any adverse action greater than a reprimand."

Devaney gave Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who joined the department in May, credit for driving a shift toward greater ethics and accountability. He has created a Conduct Accountability Board to provide advice on disciplinary questions, and has hired a well-qualified chief ethics officer, Devaney said.

Lawmakers reacted to the IG's findings with outrage. "You cannot have this much leakage, [and] you can't have this much go against the taxpayer, without criminal activity," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.

Devaney said the potential total cost of the issues raised by the IG and GAO might be in the tens of billions of dollars. Asked if it could be as much as $100 billion, the IG threw up his hands.

Devaney also highlighted problems with Interior's efforts to reform law enforcement operations. Four years into the effort, he said, only 10 of 25 directives by the secretary have been fully implemented.

At the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a 16-year-old girl died at a boarding school detention facility while the IG office was in the process of reviewing such facilities, the IG said. The investigation found "deplorable conditions," including poor access to medical care and staffing problems.

Devaney said information security remains a serious challenge for Interior as well, made worse by a decentralized structure in which each bureau has its own chief information officer. And he described weaknesses in the Minerals Management Service's system of relying heavily on companies' own reporting in its reviews of compliance on mineral lease payments.

Contacted Friday, Interior spokesman Shane Wolfe said, "There is, of course, room for improvement in any organization and we welcome the work of the inspector general in highlighting the areas that may need improvement." He agreed with a statement by Devaney that the vast majority of department employees are "hard-working, ethical and well-intentioned."