RECENTLY RELEASED REPORTS

Ill-defined practices and procedures at ITAP cause concern for protection of Department interests

An OIG investigation revealed that ITAP, a unique DOI program that provides technical expertise to over 25 countries, functions without a DOI-defined mission or operating procedures, which indicates that ITAP may be at risk of identifying more with its donors than with the Department. The investigation also revealed questionable practices regarding fees and use of memorandums of understanding that leave the Department vulnerable to waste, fraud, and mismanagement of the millions of dollars flowing through ITAP.
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Department's outdated survey information may cost millions in potential revenue

Proper survey and management of high-risk lands with antiquated surveys have the potential to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from lands with valuable surface and subsurface resources. The Bureau of Land Management Cadastral Survey program has been missing opportunities to identify and perform surveys on high-risk lands where significant potential revenues could be collected by the Department or American Indian tribes. The Department has outdated and unreliable survey information on more than 1 million boundary miles, encompassing almost 90 percent of the 385 million acres of Federal and Indian lands that DOI is responsible for in the western United States (excluding Alaska).
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BLM contributed to perception of rushed lease sale

The OIG investigated allegations that Bureau of Land Management employees were pressured to complete Resource Management Plans and rushed to include previously deferred parcels in a December 2008 BLM Utah State Office oil and gas lease sale prior to a change of White House administration. Our investigation found no evidence to support the allegation of undue pressure on BLM personnel, but we determined that BLM contributed to the perception that the lease sale was rushed. BLM did not provide advance notice to the National Park Service of a revised parcel list, refused to place parcels identified by the NPS back on the deferred list to allow further review, and announced the lease sale on Election Day.
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Disabled Native Americans waited years to receive access to trust money

Heavy workloads, poor communication, and competing priorities for Department of the Interior employees responsible for overseeing Native American trust accounts have resulted in certain cases involving those with special needs being lost or abandoned. Between 2005 and 2007, Interior’s Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians paid private investigation firms Lamar Associates and the Vander Weele Group more than $1 million to track down high-dollar account holders on its “Whereabouts Unknown” list. Yet several years later, we found that a group of nine high-dollar account holders found by the private investigators, the majority of them with special needs, and with accounts totaling approximately $660,000, had not received access to their money.
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Misconduct among some MMS employees

Inspectors at the Lake Charles District Office in Louisiana accepted gifts, received lunches, attended sporting events, and went on hunting and fishing trips paid for by oil and gas production company representatives. Our investigation, released in May 2010, found “a culture where acceptance of gifts from oil and gas companies were widespread throughout the office,” but appeared to decline after January 2007. Many inspectors also had emails that contained inappropriate humor and pornography, and there was lax handling of inspection forms. In a memorandum accompanying the report, Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall told Secretary Ken Salazar: “Of greatest concern to me is the environment in which these inspectors operate – particularly the ease with which they move between industry and government."
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