Government officials who failed to collect millions of dollars in fees from oil companies for drilling on America's public lands were having sex with energy executives, a bombshell report revealed Wednesday.A two-year internal Interior Department probe concluded that officials in the Denver-based Minerals Management Service had improperly cozied up to oil companies: rigging contracts, accepting multiple gifts and even working part-time as oil consultants. Investigators found a "pervasive" culture of boozing, drugs and sex in the office and rampant improper contacts between government officials and oil company employees. "Sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arm's-length," Inspector General Earl Devaney noted dryly. The scandal exploded just as the debate over off-shore oil drilling took center stage in the presidential campaign. Delegates at last week's Republican National Convention even burst into a chant about drilling.
wow goldcheap wow goldwow goldbuy wow goldwarcraft gold"This gives new meaning to the phrase 'drill, baby, drill,'" said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan), who has long called for greater oversight of oil royalties. "We can't afford another four years of Republican leadership that's literally in bed with the oil industry." The inspector general's probe centered on the officials handling the government's Royalty in Kind office, a payment system long pushed by the oil-and-gas lobby. Put into effect in 2004 by the Bush administration, the Royalty in Kind program allows energy companies to pay the government in oil instead of cash for the rights to drill, thereby complicating, and sometimes skirting, rigorous accounting. A report last year lashed the office for a "profound failure" in monitoring $4 billion in annual oil and gas payments. Four auditors said top officials blocked them from recovering money from energy companies that had vastly underpaid the government. Estimates of lost revenue range as high as $10 billion. As the underpayments were being ignored, 19 employees were taking ski outings, meals and concert tickets from Chevron, Shell, Hess and the Gary-Williams Energy Corp., Devaney's reports said. "None of the employees involved displayed remorse," he wrote. The probe singled out Gregory Smith, the former head of the Royalty in Kind office, for allegedly using marijuana, cocaine and crystal meth, coercing employees to buy him drugs and have sex with him, and moonlighting as a private oil consultant. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Smith in May. His lawyer called the claims "sheer fantasy."
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