Making Government Transparent and Accountable
The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Underlying all of our efforts is a fundamental belief that increased transparency will improve the public's confidence in government
The Sunlight Foundation Blog
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Recovery.gov Description FAIL
As is now showing up all over the social web and news reports, the site Recovery.gov – which was set up to help the public hold government accountable for stimulus spending – lists a stimulus contract awarded to Clougherty Packing LLC for $1.19M for the listed service of “2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED.”
Read as stated, this clearly leads one to believe that the U.S. government spent nearly $1.2M for 2 pounds of ham …sliced.
Now, as has since been clarified via a press release from the U.S Department of Agriculture, “2 POUND” refers to the individual size of each of the 760,000 pounds of ham that were actually purchased – not just one very very expensive ham.
In putting out this press release, the USDA has completely missed the point.
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Dept. of Interior Oil Scandal
Yesterday, the Inspector General of the Department of the Interior released multiple reports revealing widespread corruption in the Mineral Management Services agency, which handles mineral extraction, leases, and royalties for the Department of the Interior. The allegations show employees receiving illegal gifts, graft, filing false statements on ethics forms, using illegal drugs, and having sex with both subordinates in the agency and with agents of oil and gas companies with business before the agency.
Here are some of the allegations:
Lucy Denett, former associate director of minerals revenue management: accused of steering a contract to one of her aides after he retired.
Gregory Smith, former director of the royalty-in-kind program: accused of doing outside consulting work that included using his position to help the company paying him gain access to clients doing work with the royalty-in-kind program; billing Mineral Management Services for trips made in conjunction with his outside consulting work; accepting over $1,000 in gifts from oil and gas companies; using cocaine with a subordinate; having sex with two subordinates, where one episode is clearly a sexual assault.
Eight other employees: Socialized with and received gifts from companies with business before the royalty-in-kind program. Two of these employees are also alleged to have used drugs and had sexual relations with various agents of oil and gas companies with business before the program.
Here’s CNN reporting on the report:
The IG reports are available at ProPublica where Paul Kiel is providing running coverage.
Since 2001, when President Bush took office, the Department of the Interior was beset by problems arising from the appointment of officials who previously worked in or with the industries that the Department is intended to oversee.
Both the Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, and the Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Steven J. Griles, came from the extraction industries. Norton worked for a law firm that lobbied for a variety of companies, including oil, gas, and metal companies. Griles previously worked for a natural resources company and later provided public relations advice to a variety of extraction companies doing business with the government. Both Norton and Griles wound up caught in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Norton resigned her post as the scandal encroached into the Department of the Interior, while Griles wound up pleading guilty.
Ethical standards trickle from the top on down. Some of the officials involved in this current scandal expressed the opinion that they “didn’t think ethics rules applied to them because of their ‘unique’ role in the agency and that they needed to socialize with industry representatives for ‘market intelligence.’” The Mineral Management Services scandal has been brewing for a long time and highlights a lack of oversight that occurs when a Department is staffed with individuals who are used to making money from the business they are charged with regulating.
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Indian Gambling Scandal Redux?
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported recently about a curious case involving four California Indian gambling interests and how they obtained federal approval for a major and lucrative expansion of their operations. The paper described the incident a "major embarrassment" for the U.S. Department of the Interior and a "potential scandal unfolding from within."
Four tribes had been pushing legislation in the California state legislature to ratify a major expansion of their gaming operations. Specifically, they are hoping to gain approval to increase dramatically the number of slot machines at their casinos, constituting "one of the largest gambling expansions in state history," according to The Union-Tribune. It would also make the casinos some of the largest in the country, and the tribes would be looking at huge future profits. A group of gambling opponents, No on the Unfair Gambling Deals, filed an initiative that is forcing a February 5th statewide vote that if passes will nullify legislation that ratified the agreements. In September, despite the pending referendum, California’s secretary of state, saying that state law requires it, sent the agreements via Federal Express to the Interior Department for approval.
And this is where it gets really interesting.
The secretary sent the package to the wrong office at the department, but an employee at Interior remembers receiving the package and hand delivering it to the correct office, that of Carl Artman, assistant secretary for Indian affairs. But no one in Artman’s office remembers or is willing to say they remember receiving the FedEx package. And then, 80 days after the package was received by Interior, it turns up in the in-box of George Skibine, head of the bureau’s Indian gaming management branch and the person who reviews tribal gambling agreements.
Federal law gives the department 45 days to act on such agreements. If no action is taken over that period they are approved. In early December, the department approved the compacts because of the passed deadline. Skibine said he saw a problem and hoped the department could delay action allowing further review. He was overruled by his superiors, but he won’t say who gave him the directive.
If No on the Unfair Gambling Deals succeeds in passing their referendum on February 5th the agreements will be blocked. But Interior’s approval likely opens the door to legal action. "If voters reject the compacts, the legal weight of the premature federal approval would become the subject of a long legal fight, several attorneys predicted," the The Union-Leader reported.
A spokesperson for the No on the Unfair Gambling Deals termed the Interior Department’s story "unbelievable," they press on with "the highly controversial deals that sit unseen for six weeks and then miraculously appear in an official’s inbox too late for review." You would think officials at the Department of Interior would show more care regarding such matters in light of the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal and the conviction of J. Steven Griles, Interior’s former deputy secretary, for obstruction of justice in conjunction with the Abramoff mega-scandal. The four tribes, Aqua Caliente, Morongo, Pechanga and Sycuan, have diligently built good contacts in Washington through generous campaign contributions to both Democrats and Republicans. According to Center for Responsive Politics compiled data, the tribes have consistently been among the top contributors to federal candidates and parties by casino and gaming interests, contributing collectively almost $3.8 million over the past decade. As our friend Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington was quoted as saying, "I don’t think accidents like this happen."
Hat tip: Captain’s Quarters blog.
