Two US Senate Democrats plan to introduce legislation detailing appropriate conduct for government employees dealing with oil and gas producers in response to misconduct in the US Minerals Management Service’s royalty-in-kind operation (OGJ Online, Sept. 12, 2008).
“If we need to put on the books ‘Don’t take money and drugs from the oil and gas industry,’ that’s what we’ll do to stop the influence peddling. The whole sordid affair shows how much sway Big Oil holds over the government,” said Bill Nelson (Fla.).
“With two oilmen in the White House for the past 8 years, parts of the federal government have become wholly owned subsidiaries of Big Oil,” added Robert Menendez (NJ). “With these reforms, we intend to break up the cozy bond that has been allowed to develop for far too long, costing American taxpayers untold amounts of revenue.”
They said their bill would ban the acceptance of all gifts from the oil and gas industry, increase the number of MMS employees required to file financial disclosure and past employment forms, require MMS employees to divest oil and gas investments before starting work at the US Department of the Interior agency, and hold MMS employees to the same standards as federal procurement officials. Those standards include a 1-year “revolving door” ban on accepting jobs at companies with which the federal employee worked while on the federal payroll, Nelson and Menendez explained.
The senators said their bill also would suspend the MMS royalty-in-kind program until the agency conducts full reviews and reports to Congress its findings determining if MMS has been collecting royalties accurately and ensuring that metering equipment is properly measuring royalties that are owed.
Training required
It also would require MMS to conduct “a robust training program,” with employees certifying in writing that they understand the ethics laws and regulations, and to create an ombudsman position to monitor MMS’s progress in carrying out reforms. The DOI’s inspector general would hire the ombudsman and oversee his or her reports, Nelson and Menendez said.
Their announcement came 8 days after DOI Inspector General Earl E. Devaney submitted a report to Interior Sec. Dirk A. Kempthorne outlining ethics violations ranging from unauthorized outside employment to drug abuse and sexual solicitation by some employees in the MMS royalty-in-kind office.
The US House Natural Resources Committee, which is chaired by Nick J. Rahall (D-W. Va.), has scheduled a Sept. 18 hearing on Devaney’s findings. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who chairs the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, on Sept. 12 sent letters to the chief executives of three companies Devaney named in his report, requesting information about the firms’ possible roles.