Drill here, Drill now!: Hanky-panky at the Interior Department.

From the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — As Congress prepares to debate expanding drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.

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 non-tax revenue sources.

“A culture of ethical failure” pervades 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.

 

Shocking, I tell you!

 

Drill, baby, drill!

 

Drill, baby, drill is a way of life for these people

 

The AP story is even more brutal:
Gov't Officials Probed About Illicit Sex, Gifts
By DINA CAPPIELLO
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 10, 2008; 2:35 PM

WASHINGTON -- Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties engaged in illicit sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday.
The alleged transgressions involve 13 Interior Department employees in Denver and Washington. Their alleged improprieties include rigging contracts, working part-time as private oil consultants, and having sexual relationships with _ and accepting golf and ski trips and dinners from _ oil company employees, according to three reports released Wednesday by the Interior Department's inspector general.
The investigations reveal a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" by a small group of individuals "wholly lacking in acceptance of or adherence to government ethical standards," wrote Inspector General Earl E. Devaney.
The reports describe a fraternity house atmosphere inside the Denver Minerals Management Service office responsible for marketing the oil and gas that energy companies barter to the government instead of making cash royalty payments for drilling on federal lands. The government received $4.3 billion in such Royalty-in-Kind payments last year. The oil is then resold to energy companies or put in the nation's emergency stockpile.
Between 2002 and 2006, nearly a third of the 55-person staff in the Denver office received gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies, the investigators found.
Devaney said the former head of the Denver Royalty-in-Kind office, Gregory W. Smith, used illegal drugs and had sex with subordinates. The report said Smith also steered government contracts to a consulting business that was employing him part-time.

 

I'd like to be the human resources guy for the energy company charged with hiring hotties to turn the heads of Interior Department saps.

 

Never a good idea to put "probed" and "illicit sex" in the same headline.

 

I disagree. ALWAYS a good idea.

 

What exactly makes the sex illicit?

 

Oil-based lubricants?

 

Sure. Conflict of interest, perhaps. But illicit?