I am glad to see President Obama sacking people for their utter disregard for honesty in their jobs. The Mineral Management Service has long been a hotbed of corruption and now those decisions are coming home to roost in the form of oil-soaked pelicans.
Now is the time for the Obama Administration to make a very salient point about corruption of government officials in any form.
Hard labor for crimes against nation.
First, a quick look at the MMS and their ways with Big Oil/Coal/Gas.
IG report: MMS ethics violations included bribes and cheating
By Delilah Jean Williams. Allvoices.com
http://www.allvoices.com/...
Reportedly, Alaska officials handed out cash bonuses to insiders, who would expedite the permit process. At the same time, biologists and marine scientists were basically censored if they dared to raise any red flags or warnings of any potential disasters—like what happened on April 20.
In response to the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General report released on Tuesday, Center for Biological Diversity Executive Director Kierán Suckling said:
"The Inspector General report released today highlights the ongoing failures of the Minerals Management Service, which is riddled with illegal drug use, bribery, and, worst of all, falsification of inspection reports crucial to ensuring the safe operation of drill rigs in our waters," said Kieran Suckling, Executive Director for Center for Biological Diversity. "MMS safety inspectors taking drugs on oil platforms is bad enough, but falsifying reports and allowing the industry to ghostwrite their inspections is completely outrageous.
According the report, former employees from MMS are currently working in organizations that gives them the ability to directly influence policies that would have a favorable outcome to offshore drilling and the energy industry. A major conflict of interest.
Federal report slams drilling inspectors
By Jim Tankersley, Tribune Washington Bureau
http://mobile.latimes.com/...
The report's allegations include:
-- MMS inspectors accepted meals, entrance fees to skeet-shooting competitions and, most notably, a trip to see LSU beat Miami in the 2005 Peach Bowl, from industry representatives. One inspector told investigators he knew he should not accept the trip, but, investigators wrote, "He explained that he was a 'big LSU fan,' and he could not refuse the tickets."
* Sources within MMS alleged that inspectors would allow industry officials to fill out their own inspection forms in pencil, then write over them later in pen. Investigators examined more than 500 forms but said they could not determine if fraud was committed.
-- A conversation between a Conoco Phillips employee and an inspector that hints at industry attempts to bribe investigators. The inspector wrote an email detailing fines assessed to companies "for breaking the rules," investigators wrote. "The Conoco Phillips employee responded, '[E]ver get bribed for some of that?' He replied, 'They try all the time.' The Conoco Phillips employee responded back, '[E]ver take em?' the inspector said, 'I accept "gifts" from certain people. But we have VERY strict ethic standards as you could imagine.' The Conoco Phillips employee replied, '[C]ertain people, meaning women?' the inspector said, 'No. meaning good friends that I wouldn't write up anyway.'
* Evidence that a platform operator, Island Operating Company, negotiated to hire - and eventually hired - an MMS inspector who was inspecting the company's operations at the time of the negotiation.
Oil rig safety inspectors accepted ‘gifts’, report finds
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner, FT.com
http://www.ft.com/...
In one case, a confidential source who was cited in the report claimed one MMS inspector was a user of crystal methamphetamine and "might have" used the drug while offshore on platforms. During an interview with investigators, the inspector admitted to using the drug and said he "might have been" under the influence at work after using it a day earlier.
In one e-mail exchange unearthed by the IG, a former MMS inspector told an employee at ConocoPhillips that he had accepted gifts from certain "good friends" in the oil industry. The 2006 exchange began when the then inspector e-mailed the Conoco employee with a list of fines that it had assessed in the first quarter.
"Ever get bribed for some of that?" the Conoco employee asked. "They try all the time," the inspector responded. Asked then if he ever accepted, the inspector said: "I accept ‘gifts’ from certain people. But we have very strict ethical standards as you could imagine."
There you go folks, porn, drugs, bribes, corruption on the highest order.
Here is an idea whose times has come.
Hard labor for corruption.
Any individual who is connected to this corruption, be they a government official or private industry fat cat, they must all be shackled.
Yes, shackled.
Then marched to the beaches of the Gulf Coast for hard labor cleaning up the mess their greed and maleficence created.
These people will clean sand, sift marshes, clean wild life, dredge swamps until ever last evidence of their crimes against this nation is wiped away properly.
A slap on the hand will not do.
A fine is just part of the bottom line of business.
No friends, it is time to make a point about corruption between corporations and our government.
Hard labor cleaning the mess they made.
And if they howl, tell them if they can't do the time, don't do the crime.
And if we pool both the government and corporate officials into this hard labor pool to clean the ecological nightmare they have created, then let me tell you friend, there won't be many in the future.
You can take that to the bank, like the MMS use to take their bribes.