Word: devaney
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...most expensive examples of "bureaucratic bungling," according to Devaney, was a department program in the late 1990s to encourage oil-company exploration in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where it's more difficult than it is on land to extract the crude. Those leases exempted the companies from having to pay royalties to the federal government. The agreements, however, were supposed to have a clause in them that lifted the exemption if oil prices shot past $36 a barrel. (Oil currently sells for more than $60 a barrel.) But because of a foul-up in drafting the deepwater...
...Rather than heads rolling for infractions, the Cabinet agency has become a fault-free zone, Devaney claims. "Short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of Interior," says the former Secret Service agent. "Ethics failures on the part of senior department officials-taking the form of appearances of impropriety, favoritism, and bias-have been routinely dismissed with a promise 'not to do it again.'" In numerous instances top officials who leave the department under a cloud, said Devaney, "are sent off with a party paying tribute to their good service...
...case Devaney found particularly troubling was that of Steven Griles, Interior's deputy secretary in George W. Bush's first term. Devaney in 2004 referred 25 possible ethics violations by Griles to the Office of Government Ethics outside of Interior. That office cleared Griles of 23 of the violations but referred the remaining two to then-Secretary Gale Norton for a decision. Devaney says Norton refused, over his objections, to take any action against her deputy...
...ethics office kicked back to her, "one was about a dinner Steve Griles had in the home of a lobbyist (which Griles paid for), and the other was a question about the definition of a 'particular matter' under federal ethics guidelines. On that latter point, I simply viewed Mr. Devaney's interpretation as legally incorrect...
...Meanwhile, Dirk Kempthorne, who replaced Norton as Interior Secretary last July, insists he's taking Devaney's "allegations concerning issues dating back to 1998 very seriously." Kempthorne points out that his first day on the job he sent a letter to Interior employees titled "Our Ethical Responsibilities." Since then, the new Interior chief says he's been preaching to his workers that when they're unsure whether something is ethical or not, "if in doubt...