taxpayers in united states fucked over by THE MAN again and again
Oil lease blunder hidden 6 years
Investigator says mistake cost taxpayers billions of dollars
By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Interior Department officials realized in 2000 that their offshore lease agreements with oil companies shortchanged American taxpayers, but they covered up their multibillion-dollar mistake for six years, an investigator said Wednesday.
After combing through 11,000 e-mail messages and interviewing 29 current and former Interior Department employees, federal investigators still aren't ready to say who they think told a staffer to omit contract language that would have forced oil companies operating in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico to pay billions of dollars in royalty payments as energy prices rose.
"Although we have found massive finger-pointing and blame enough to go around, we do not have the proverbial 'smoking gun,' " Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney told a House panel Wednesday.
"However, we do have a costly mistake."
Investigator says mistake cost taxpayers billions of dollars
By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Interior Department officials realized in 2000 that their offshore lease agreements with oil companies shortchanged American taxpayers, but they covered up their multibillion-dollar mistake for six years, an investigator said Wednesday.
After combing through 11,000 e-mail messages and interviewing 29 current and former Interior Department employees, federal investigators still aren't ready to say who they think told a staffer to omit contract language that would have forced oil companies operating in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico to pay billions of dollars in royalty payments as energy prices rose.
"Although we have found massive finger-pointing and blame enough to go around, we do not have the proverbial 'smoking gun,' " Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney told a House panel Wednesday.
"However, we do have a costly mistake."
