Department of the Interior OIG

The OIG investigated allegations that a lease operator may have submitted false Oil and Gas Operations Reports (OGOR) to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) to avoid paying plugging and abandonment costs for a well.We found that from May 2015 to January 2017 the lease operator did not...

The OIG investigated allegations that a National Park Service (NPS) employee falsified his Department of Defense Form 214 (DD Form 214), Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty, and used the forged document to obtain employment with the Federal Government. The anonymous complainant also...

The OIG investigated allegations of contract fraud and misuse of Federal funds related to a municipal boat access site renovation partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).We did not substantiate allegations of contract fraud or the misuse of Federal funds. The...

We completed a verification review of Recommendations 58 to 64, presented in our evaluation report, A New Horizon: Looking to the Future of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (CR-EV-MMS-0015-2010), issued December 2010. Our objective for this review was to determine...

For this inspection, we summarized the common themes and problems in award acquisition and management across 19 products—9 contract audits, 3 grant audits, 1 inspection, and 6 management advisories—that we issued to bureau officials over 4 years, ending July 31, 2017, related to awards made for...

OIG investigated allegations that offshore oil and gas company employees and contractors illegally discharged oil into the Gulf of Mexico.We determined offshore workers Luke Ball, Darryl Plaisance, and William Smith intentionally discharged oil into the Gulf while operating aboard a platform located...

The OIG investigated allegations that a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) review of its own failures in oversight of a Federal grant was biased and that USBR or Office of the Solicitor employees made false statements during our initial investigation of the grant.We did not find any evidence that...

The OIG initiated an investigation after an inventory of a safe located in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Office of Law Enforcement and Security (OLES), found that thousands of dollars in gift cards were unaccounted for.We found 119 gift cards in the safe, valued at $2,345, and property...

OIG investigated allegations that Joseph Dubois filed a fraudulent surety bond to secure a contract at the Pine Hill School, Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation, NM.We found that the Ramah Navajo School Board contracted Dubois to renovate a building at the Pine Hill School. The contracts required him...

The OIG investigated allegations that a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) senior official approved or directed the approval of two drawdowns totaling approximately $3.1 million from an Operation, Maintenance, and Replacement (OMR) Trust Fund designated for a regional rural water system (RWS) at a time...