Investigative Reports

The OIG investigated allegations that officials from the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and the U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Solicitor (SOL), obstructed an administrative inquiry into alleged sexual misconduct by a USBR official. The complainant alleged that USBR and SOL officials withheld information, attempted to influence witnesses by holding meetings to discuss the inquiry, and tried to stop the inquiry. The complainant further alleged that these officials provided advice to the inquiry while also advising regional management on how to address the alleged misconduct. Finally, the complainant alleged that an SOL official made disparaging comments about their work product to USBR leadership because of the complaint.We found that two USBR officials omitted information during the administrative inquiry and that one also withheld a requested document. While we did not find evidence of improper involvement to influence or stop the inquiry, we did find that poor communication between the USBR and the SOL created confusion and mistrust regarding the roles and responsibilities of those involved with the inquiry. We confirmed that the SOL criticized some of the content in the report prepared by the complainant, which the SOL said included the complainant’s opinions, but we did not find evidence that any personnel actions were taken against the complainant.

The OIG investigated allegations that Georgie Russell, Chief Financial Officer for the Chippewa Cree Construction Company (C-4), embezzled funds from C-4 and Dry Forks Farm, a tribally owned business. We also investigated allegations that Russell submitted false quarterly financial reports to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) for the federally funded Rocky Boys/North Central Montana Regional Water System Project.Our investigation confirmed that Russel embezzled funds from C-4 and Dry Forks Farm by falsifying time sheets and authorizing fraudulent payments. We also found that Russell submitted false quarterly financial reports to USBR, in which she misrepresented C-4’s cash on hand for the water project by as much as $1.7 million. Russell pled guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana to theft and filing false statements. She was sentenced to 18 months in Federal prison and ordered to repay $61,230 in restitution.

We investigated allegations that James Milestone, Superintendent of California’s Whiskeytown National Recreation Area (WHIS), National Park Service (NPS), solicited donations and inappropriately collected funds for the park partner organization Friends of Whiskeytown (FOW). We also investigated allegations that Milestone had park employees work on FOW projects while on duty, misused maintenance project funds, disregarded compliance rules and other requirements for a trail project, engaged in gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and misused a Government-owned vehicle.We substantiated the allegations that Milestone routinely violated Federal regulations and NPS policies and found that he demonstrated questionable leadership practices:• Milestone admitted that he had solicited and collected donations for the FOW and asked his subordinates and a park concessionaire to do the same.• Milestone violated ethics regulations by offering the services of WHIS employees and its lodging accommodations to the FOW for fundraising events.• Milestone ignored departmental policy and compliance requirements and improperly redirected funding for a proposed trail project.• Milestone communicated unprofessionally with his staff, including making inappropriate gender-based remarks.• Milestone routinely misused a Government-owned vehicle; we also determined that he demonstrated a lack of candor when he denied the misuse.We provided this report to the NPS Deputy Director, who is exercising the authority of the NPS Director, for any action deemed appropriate.

The OIG investigated allegations that counterfeit purchase requests for high value electronic goods, appearing to have been sent by officials in the U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Acquisition and Property Management (PAM), had been sent to small businesses throughout the United States.We substantiated the allegations. We found fraudulent emails and purchase requests linked to at least two PAM employees who had not written or authorized the documents. We found that the suspect used an online service that masked the sender’s email address and gave victims the impression the emails were sent from official “.gov” email accounts. There were no indications that any of the fraudulent purchase attempts were successful.Our findings indicated the subject was likely outside of the United States and there was no apparent loss to the Government or any of the small businesses, so we closed our investigation.

The OIG investigated allegations that a former Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee provided confidential procurement information to a prospective contractor to give it an unfair advantage on a contract bid. The complainant alleged the former employee provided the information while still employed by BLM and, after retiring, went to work for the contractor. We also investigated allegations the former employee influenced a change to the GSA schedule type to allow the contractor to be eligible to bid on the contract.Our investigation found no evidence that the former employee had access to or provided any confidential procurement information, and we confirmed the former employee never worked for the contractor in question. We also found no evidence the former employee was involved in the decision to change the GSA schedule type or had any other influence on the contract award.

We found that the fire alarm and suppression systems are not fully functioning despite $1.2 million in contract awards to repair the systems.

The OIG investigated allegations that approximately $30,000 in checks issued erroneously by the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians (OST) in the name of a deceased tribal member had been fraudulently negotiated after his death.We found that the decedent’s son received the checks, endorsed them with his own signature, and cashed them. The son admitted he took the checks and acknowledged he knew it was wrong to do so.We also learned that the OST did not have a process in place to identify beneficiaries who had died. In this instance, the decedent’s sister attempted to report his death to OST, but she did not have sufficient information to complete the required report when she called the OST’s Trust Beneficiary Call Center. The center did not follow up with the sister and did not remove the decedent from its list of beneficiaries.We referred this matter to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico, which declined to prosecute.We will conduct an inspection of OST to determine internal control weakness that allowed the fraud to occur.

The OIG investigated allegations that a National Park Service (NPS) superintendent mismanaged donated funds by depositing them into his personal checking account.We found that the superintendent violated Federal law and NPS policy when he deposited $500 donated yearly to the park into his personal checking account as a means to manage the funds. At the time of the deposits, the superintendent was not aware that he was prohibited from doing so. We did not find any evidence that the superintendent misused any of the donated funds.

The OIG investigated allegations that National Park Service (NPS) Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith made an obscene gesture and used vulgar language while standing in the hallway of the NPS headquarters in Washington, DC. Smith and another NPS employee recalled Smith telling a story while they were standing in the hallway together, but they denied that Smith touched himself obscenely or used any vulgar language. Smith acknowledged he gestured with his hands to simulate urinating while telling a story and stated that in hindsight the story and the gesture were not appropriate for work. The other employee said he was not offended by the story or the gesture but also acknowledged that they were inappropriate for the workplace. We found no other witnesses to the incident.

The OIG investigated allegations that between 2013 and 2017, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) employee wrongfully purchased approximately $6,000 worth of office and printer supplies with a Government purchase card. We also investigated whether the employee’s supervisor failed to review and monitor the purchase card transactions.We found that the employee made unauthorized purchases of supplies and used them for printing that was outside the scope of her assigned duties and unauthorized by her supervisors. The printing included FWS related news articles and birthday cards for coworkers. We did not find any personal gain by the employee from the unauthorized purchases.We also found that the employee’s current supervisor reviewed the purchase card transactions as required. The current supervisor had only recently been promoted, however, and was not the required reviewer until 2016. The current supervisor also asked repeatedly for the purchase card statements from the employee, who acknowledged she had fallen behind in providing the statements to her supervisor.We referred this case to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming, which declined to prosecute.This is a summary of an investigative report that was issued to the Acting Director, FWS.

An Amtrak Track Supervisor in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, was terminated from employment following an administrative hearing on May 24, 2018, for theft related to time and attendance fraud.

We investigated allegations that a former National Park Service (NPS) senior official at Acadia National Park (ACAD), Bar Harbor, ME, violated Federal criminal laws prior to his retirement and through his post-employment work with a nonprofit organization that receives Federal funds through a cooperative agreement with the park. We also investigated an allegation that the senior official participated in improper fundraising activities during a retirement dinner sponsored for him by the nonprofit organization.We found that the subject of our investigation, while still an NPS senior official, illegally accepted $14,771 in gifts from the nonprofit organization and its board members. We also found that he negotiated for employment with the organization while he was a Government employee and while participating in matters that affected the organization, a violation of Federal criminal law. He further violated Federal criminal law when he communicated with the Government on behalf of the organization following his retirement regarding particular matters that he had worked on while an NPS senior official.We found that the former senior official’s participation in the retirement dinner did not violate Federal fundraising rules. While at the dinner, however, he violated ethics regulations by accepting gifts from outside sources.We presented our findings to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine and the Department of Justice, Public Integrity Section, which declined prosecution.We are providing this report to the NPS Deputy Director for any action deemed appropriate.

The OIG investigated an allegation that a senior official with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was involved in a conflict of interest when she directed her staff to hire a private consultant who was her friend. We found that the official violated Federal ethics regulations when she directed her staff to pay $2,400 to a private consultant with whom she had both a professional and personal relationship. In return for the payment, the consultant provided three written work products to BLM.

The OIG investigated allegations that two Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) employees sold stolen BIA equipment to a contractor, and that another BIA employee provided sensitive procurement information to a contractor in exchange for kickbacks.We found no evidence to support either allegation. Regarding the first allegation, the BIA facility did not have a tracking system in place during the time of the alleged theft, so we could not determine whether BIA owned the property alleged to have been stolen. The BIA employees and the contractor denied the theft and a search of the contractor’s premises did not identify any Government property. Since the time of the alleged theft, the BIA facility has updated its property management system. Regarding the second allegation, both the BIA employee and the contractor denied the allegation of collusion and kickbacks, and we did not locate any witnesses or records to corroborate the allegation.

The OIG investigated allegations that U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) employees improperly awarded a sole-source security services contract at a dam, received kickbacks for rigging the contract bidding process, and approved inflated invoices.Our investigation found no evidence that USBR employees improperly awarded the contract or received kickbacks for rigging the contract bidding process.We referred the allegations of inflated invoices to our Office of Audits, Inspections, and Evaluations, which audited the contract for compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The findings of that audit will be issued in a separate report.

ABSG Consulting, Inc., has agreed to pay the United States $650,000 to resolve an allegation that it knowingly submitted false claims to Amtrak in the award of a $1 million training contract. The allegation arose because Amtrak was not notified that ABSG Consulting’s program manager for the contract had a close personal and financial relationship with the senior Amtrak Police Department (APD) official who approved ABSG Consulting’s selection as the winning bidder and oversaw implementation of the training program.

The OIG investigated an allegation that a DOI grant official had a conflict of interest because she owned a consulting company that assisted people in obtaining grants.We found no evidence of a conflict of interest. The official’s consulting company had no revenue, clients, or employees; the official only intended to consult on non-Federal grants; and the official disclosed her company on her required annual financial disclosure form.

The OIG investigated allegations that Sanco Operating/Sanders Oil and Gas (Sanco) failed to report gas production and underreported gas sales from a Federal mineral lease, which resulted in a loss of royalties owed to the Government. We conducted a joint investigation with the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Special Investigations Group and found that Sanco stopped paying Federal royalties to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) in 2010 and failed to report gas production from August 2010 through December 2016. In February 2018, Sanco agreed to settle this matter and entered into an agreement with the United States Attorney’s Office, District of Colorado, in the amount of $130,752 for unpaid royalties.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General’s Investigations Newsletter highlights selected investigative accomplishments of our office for the period from February 1 to March 31, 2018.

We identified a potential conflict of interest issue involving a former member of the Amtrak Board of Directors who had previously been a management official at another company within the transportation industry. Specifically, Amtrak and this company developed a partnership agreement while the former Board member was still actively serving on the Amtrak Board. Our review sought to determine whether the agreement complied with applicable ethics standards.We determined that the Board member did not violate any applicable laws in this matter, and we did not find evidence that the member directly benefited from the partnership agreement. However, our review found the Board was not well-served by the company’s processes designed to identify and mitigate potential conflicts of interest.