Department of the Interior

We reviewed actions the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and three of its bureaus took during the longest partial Government shutdown in U.S. history (from December 22, 2018, through January 25, 2019). Our objective was to determine whether the three DOI bureaus—the National Park Service, the U...

During recent investigations into allegations of private companies (producers) accessing and producing unleased Federal minerals, we uncovered programmatic vulnerabilities that undermine the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) oversight of Federal mineral production and limit the U.S. Government’s...

The OIG investigated an allegation that a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee may have accessed and viewed child pornography on a Government computer on multiple occasions.We found that the employee accessed and viewed adult pornography on the Government computer while inside a Government...

The OIG investigated an allegation that a supervisor within the Office of the Secretary lowered a subordinate employee’s annual performance rating in reprisal for protected disclosures and activities made by the employee.We found no evidence that the supervisor reprised against the employee. We...

The OIG investigated allegations that a former U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) employee made personal purchases with his Government travel card (GTC) while he was in an absent without leave (AWOL) employment status.We confirmed the former employee used his GTC to pay his rent and car insurance and...

The OIG investigated an allegation that a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) law enforcement supervisor was involved in an outside business venture in violation of Federal ethics regulations and U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) policies. We also investigated whether the law enforcement supervisor...

The OIG investigated allegations that Leslie Lewis, a National Park Service (NPS) Supervisory Fee Management Specialist, embezzled fee deposit funds from Mammoth Cave National Park, KY.We determined that from 2014 through 2018 Lewis embezzled $169,322 from the park’s fee collection program, using...