Jackie Speier
File photo by Luke Thomas
From the Office of Congresswoman Jackie Speier
September 11, 2008
“This week, Earl Devaney, Inspector General of the Department of the Interior, released his report to Interior Secretary Kempthorne outlining gross ethical lapses within the government’s Minerals Management Service. After a 2 year, $5.3 million dollar investigation, the IG documented “a pervasive culture of exclusivity, exempt from the rules that govern all other employees of the Federal Government.’
“Top officials of the MMS engaged in numerous illegal activities, including setting up an outside consulting business to which they directed government contracts and frequently taking ‘a wide array of gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies with whom (they were) conducting official business’.
“Most disturbing – and most telling of the administration’s complicit relationship with the oil industry – is the Inspector General’s startling assertion that ‘The cases against former employees… were referred to the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice (DOJ). However, that office declined to prosecute.’ In addition, Mr. Devaney expressed his frustration with ‘DOJ and the ultimate refusal of one major oil company – Chevron – to cooperate with our investigation.’
“Today, I have taken steps to insert an Integrity Clause into the next energy bill barring or severely restricting any company from bidding on new oil and gas leases if they are currently refusing to cooperate with government investigations.
“At a time of record profits for energy companies and declining confidence among the American people in both corporate and government bodies, we cannot allow this open and rampant abuse of power and office to go unpunished. Those involved must be held accountable. Unfortunately, political cronies in the Justice Department have turned a blind eye to enforcing the law, an all-too-common occurrence, when their friends are stealing from the American people.”
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