Oil inspectors let companies fill in their own audits and got high on meth, report to reveal

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

Oil inspectors let companies fill in their own audits and got high on meth, report to reveal

By Raw Story
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 -- 8:52 am

Oil inspectors let companies fill in their own audits and got high on meth, report to reveal

The agency in charge of overseeing the United States' oil reserves was plagued with gross mismanagement that in at least one case allowed the companies being inspected to fill in their own audit reports, an Inspector General's report will reportedly reveal this week.

Regulators overseeing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico reportedly allowed oil company officials to fill in their own inspection reports. According to the internal probe being released this week, oil officials sketched out their answers in pencil and turned them over to federal oversight officials, who then traced their answers over in pen.

The report, which describes inappropriate behavior by the staff at the Minerals Management Service from 2005 to 2007, also found that inspectors had accepted meals, tickets to sporting events and gifts from at least one oil company while they were overseeing the industry.

And as if that wasn't enough, a Louisiana inspector from the Minerals Management Service purportedly admitted to investigators that he'd used crystal methamphetamine, and may have been high on the illegal drug during a drilling inspection.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0525/oil-inspector-crystal-meth-letting-companies-fill-audits-report/

[msongs]

1. not LBN - more rawstory news wannabee - a report is gonna be reported lol nt

[ShortnFiery]

2. Why does Salazar still have a government job? He's responsible for INSPECTIONS. eom

[renegade000]

5. This report documents a period between 2005 to 2007...

Not saying that proves it stopped then, but it doesn't make sense to fire someone based on evidence of what his/her predecessor allowed (unless it can be shown that he didn't try to fix things).

[SpiralHawk]

3. These are Bush-Republicon appointees, right?

This shit was going down under xCommander AWOL Bush and xVP Dickie Five-Military-Deferments Oil-Profiteer Cheney.

Ptoooey on Republicon oil cronyism.

[tiny elvis]

4. sounds too much like the sec pron surfers story

pretending personal shortcomings are to blame for systemic failure

[lostnfound]

6. They surely didn't buy that on their government salaries?? This will be used by the RW

as proof that the government is at fault, that govt bureaucrats are all corrupt and incompetent,etc., ignoring the numerous logical errors in that, such as the fact that they were Bush appointees operating under BUsh rules, that any whistleblowers were tarred and feathered, that the money for this was coming from oil industry lobbyists, and that the signals all come from the top. Clearly, no one in the regulatory branches could have been under any illusion that oversight and diligence in making oil companies accountable was going to earn them any brownie points in the Bush-Cheney White House. In fact, they'd more likely lose their jobs over enforcing the rules than by taking bribes and doing drugs, I suspect.

[Lagomorph]

7. I wish SOMEBODY...

would take their job seriously. How much money does someone need to call the IRS whenever there is a problem? They pay bribes take shortcuts for the money, go after the money.

[Scurrilous]

8. K & R

:thumbsup: