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Feds should say who's guilty in oil-and-gas scandal

Rocky Mountain News

Published November 28, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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After more than two years and an incredible $5 million, the investigation into the sex, drugs and payola scandal that rocked the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service has now ended in disciplinary action against employees in the Lakewood agency.

An Interior press release of Nov. 21 reports punishment spanning the spectrum - from a letter of warning and reprimand to outright termination.

The only problem is, after spending all those millions of dollars of taxpayer money, the public has no way of knowing whether those disciplined have been treated fairly or whether some have received unduly favorable treatment.

The public doesn't know this because the service has refused to release the names of those punished or even the number of those punished. Indeed, few particulars of any kind have been divulged.

What we do know - as the Rocky reported Sept. 11 - is that "between 2002 and 2006, nearly a third of the 55-person MMS staff . . . received gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies" and that several employees in the agency's Royalty-in-Kind program engaged in illicit sexual activity and substance abuse. Interior says steps have been taken to keep this sort of thing from happening again. Let us hope so.

Three reports issued in September by Earl E. Devaney, the Interior Department's inspector general, specifically implicated 13 current and former Royalty-in-Kind employees. At the time, five of those workers had left the agency, either through retirement or resignation. Two of them, James Mayberry and Milton Dial, have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the scandal.

But of the eight remaining - all named by the inspector general - we may never know who was disciplined. This is unfortunate, since one or more of them might have faced no punishment at all. Instead, the innocent - if any - are tarred with the same brush as those rightfully chastised.

We have no desire to further punish these workers by publicly identifying them; no doubt they've already suffered much for their bad behavior. But if the taxpayer is going to shell out $5.3 million to bring these people to account, the public should at least be reassured that the reckoning was thorough and fair. Without knowing who was singled out for punishment and how, that is not possible.

These were and are, after all, workers employed by the American taxpayer, not by some private business.

Moreover, as Denver attorney and media law expert Steve Zansberg points out, the public's claim on the case is strengthened as more and more governmental bodies take an interest in it. (The U.S. House of Representatives' Natural Resources Committee, for example, conducted an extensive hearing on the matter Sept. 18.)

Part of the problem, Zansberg explains, is that "Federal courts take a broader view on privacy interests" and the rights of government employees "than the state of Colorado does." Moreover, he adds, "The state generally believes the public is entitled to know about the activities of government workers while on the job. Federal courts take a different view."

With this in mind, Gov. Bill Ritter might prove helpful. Ritter is worried that the scandalous behavior at MMS might have cost state taxpayers lost federal royalty revenue and is pressing to further investigate the matter. Perhaps the state and its courts - with their narrower view of privacy issues - might shed greater light on this disturbing episode than the federal government has so far been willing to.

Comments

  • November 28, 2008

    5:21 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    roger44 writes:

    Might depend on what party these people belong to as to whether Ritter would make them public. trust him about as far as I could throw the capitol building

  • November 28, 2008

    3:23 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Denverboy1 writes:

    I dont think we will know.....Look what happened at Rocky Flats...There was serious missteps and public health endangerment...F.B.I. raided the place....a gag order was placed on the courts and jury...We still don't know what realy happened.
    This is the age of oil addiction or so Bush say's...Big oil big business and there in bed...with our state and federal government...are we going to get the truth ??? NO