Inspector General's Inquiry Faults Regulators

May 25, 2010 by legitgov

Inspector General's Inquiry Faults Regulators --24 May 2010 Federal 'regulators' responsible for oversight of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico allowed industry officials several years ago under Bush to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil -- and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency, according to an inspector general’s report to be released this week. The report, which describes inappropriate behavior by the staff at the Minerals Management Service from 2005 to 2007, also found that inspectors had accepted meals, tickets to sporting events and gifts from at least one oil company while they were overseeing the industry.