Department of the Interior

In collaboration with the American Samoa Territorial Audit Office, we audited the American Samoa Government (ASG) executive branch to determine whether it had effective internal controls to detect and prevent unauthorized use of government-owned and -leased vehicles. We determined that the executive...

The OIG investigated allegations that Great Western Drilling Corporation (GWD) misreported mineral royalty data to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) and underpaid Federal mineral royalties.We substantiated the allegations and found that for more than 6 years, the GWD violated Federal...

The OIG investigated allegations that a senior official from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) encouraged natural resource specialists to overlook regulations so they could process Applications for Permit to Drill more quickly, and to protect any staff members who overlooked the regulations Our...

The OIG investigated allegations that a former Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) manager influenced the award of a $21 million environmental consulting contract to a firm that employed him after he left the USBR. The allegations further stated that a USBR supervisory contract specialist had a conflict of...

We focused our audit on the drawdowns made by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on Cooperative Agreement No. S16AC20034 with the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) between September 26, 2016, and December 6, 2017.Our audit focused on whether the costs claimed by the...

We audited costs claimed by the State of Michigan, Department of Natural Resources (Department), under grants awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program. Our audit included claims totaling $91 million on 25 grants that were open during the State...

We audited the costs claimed by the Missouri State Department of Conservation under grants awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program. The audit included claims totaling approximately $68.3 million on 39 grants that were open during...

We reviewed documentation provided to support the closure of a recommendation from a 2007 audit of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s use of cooperative agreements.Based on our review, we do not agree that the recommendation is resolved and implemented. We have requested that the Office of...

We reviewed eight recommendations (Recommendations 1 and 3 – 9) presented in our August 2015 audit report U.S. Department of the Interior’s Climate Science Centers, to verify that the U.S. Geological Survey has implemented them.We confirmed that all eight recommendations have been resolved and...

The OIG investigated allegations that a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) official intimidated and verbally abused a subordinate employee and that the official twice directed the employee to provide false information—once about an FWS event and once about an FWS investigation. The employee also...