Sex, Drugs and Oil; Sordid Tale of Bush Interior Department or SOP?

By Denis Campbell

The Bush Inspector General in the US Department of the Interior issued a report one year ago about government officials involved in a literal and figurative orgy of misbehaviour while working for both the government AND having lucrative contracts with the oil company affiliates they were supposedly regulating.

Nice work if you can get it.

Secretary Ken Salazar has replaced the now infamous Dirk Kempthorne, (he of the farewell 600 slide show honouring himself) and released the report to a waiting public. Not surprisingly, it is highly unlikely the revelations will lead to much needed prosecutions. Instead one can expect Secretary Salazar to issue high profile window-dressing rules changes within the Department.

Like the joke at the end of the film Philadelphia where Tom Hanks’ character jokes: “what do you call 200 lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean?” That will be a good start.

Much is made in the IG report of a paperwork trail including an innocuous sounding departmental form entitled: “Request to Engage in Outside Work or Activity.”

The question lingers: Why is it OK for any senior department official to earn a full-time salary and benefits working as a Director within the US Government and be able to complete a form allowing one to supplement supposed “full-time” important work with “extra work”?

In the case of Gregory Smith, Associate Director (at the time of the violations) then Program Director of the Royalty-in-Kind program, he earned an additional $30,075 dollars over a 14-month period whilst working full-time for the US taxpayer.

So the question is: how many other US Cabinet level departments have a similar work-work experience and why is it allowed?

This form is considered his “get out of jail free” card. It gave him the ability to legally say, “Hey, I got approval from my boss!” And it was obviously compelling enough for the Department of Justice to decide not to prosecute, and yet they accepted the guilty plea of another employee who I am certain wishes he’d lawyered and clammed up!

Much has been written about allegations of sex in offices, hotels, cars and homes with contractors and subordinates, cocaine parties and lavish entertainment expenses bestowed by oil companies on these “public servants.” When the story broke last year, most just shook their head at what seemed at the time yet another cynical Bush Cabinet Department filled with Republican Party cronies run completely amok.

And even the least cynical of us know of government workers living in their “entitlement alternative universe” taking full advantage of their 35-hour work-week (and not a second longer). Many seem to take pride in doing the barest of minimums and they can also become involved in lucrative side dealings that would not fly in the private sector?

One even expects a certain amount of malfeasance and ‘holier-than-thou’ cynicism in senior government positions, but here was an executive in the office responsible for administering oil and gas leases working for the very contractors he was supposed to regulate and control?

My friend Jacqui was driven crazy ‘working’ in the public sector and wanting to do her job well. She could not understand a mentality that instead of saying to oneself, “if I invest 10-minutes, I can finish what I’m working on now and start fresh tomorrow, but instead everyone stops at the stroke of five (or before), puts everything away and wastes 20-minutes re-starting the same item the next day. Said Jacqui, “my supervisor actually came and sat in my cubicle because I wanted to finish a task before taking my break. She said, ‘I am going to sit here and force you to take your break – right now.’”

But what if this is US Cabinet department senior officer SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)? While not suggesting it is, I’m not sure as a taxpayer in an economy with 10% unemployment/17% underemployed we should have senior Treasury Officials trying to unravel the banking crisis and consulting with the bankers they are trying to regulate. Same, same for those working on the Climate Change Bill also playing legislative footsie with the EPA and/or Energy Department. Or those trying to bring about healthcare reform being advised by doctor, hospital and pharmaceutical lobbyist groups…

Hey! Wait a minute… we’ll get back to you.

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Denis G Campbell is author of the book Egypt Unsh@ckled: Using social media to @#:) the System. He is also editor-in-chief of UK Progressive Magazine and contributes politics and business articles for several global newspapers and magazines. He also provides regular commentary for BBC, China Radio International and others.
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