The Interior Department Knows How To Party
.The Interior Department Knows How To Party
I often think that it might be better to take George Carlin’s approach to life, and to view it as a big carnival/freakshow put on for the entertainment of those who can look at it that way. Generally, I take things a little too seriously to do that, but then things like this come up: “Oil brokers sex scandal may affect drilling debate”.
Basically, the Interior Department has a section, the Minerals Management Service, that is supposed to “act like a private business” and negotiate payments from oil companies to the US government in e.g. gas rather than in cash as part of the “royalties in kind” program. Shockingly, it turns out that this program is staffed with people who are remarkably friendly to the companies they’re supposedly negotiating with.
And when I say “remarkably friendly”, I mean that a number of the officials involved:
frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.
—Sex, Drug Use and Graft Cited in Interior Department, Charlie Savage, The New York Times 10 Sep 2008
From the reports, it seems that the whole thing was run like a frat party, with the oil companies footing many of the bills. Purely out of their generosity and their desire that the party go on, of course. Not for an understanding of favors from the staff, who could, for example, ensure that the taxpayer received far less of the oil companies’ money than might be strictly correct and proper. No, the oil companies just love to fund people having fun, and what’s more fun than “a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity”?
That’s pretty fantastic ROI those companies are getting, too. The largest piece of actual graft mentioned in the articles I read was something around $30,000, in a dubious “loan” to one of the officials. Even assuming that these people are getting away with ten times what’s been uncovered, that’s still several million—at most, and probably a lot less—in return for at least tens of millions, possibly hundreds of millions, and maybe even billions of dollars essentially given to these companies thanks to their total subversion of an agency meant to oversee them.
I suspect there’s not that much more graft (in the sense of actual cash given to the officials involved), and that in truth it’s easy to get to a few key people, ensure that they hire party animals and/or people who have or desire political connections, and then spend a comparative pittance on hotels, flights, drugs, escorts, and meals to get the desired results. I suspect they do that, plus encourage a (probably already present) disdain for anyone not in on the “game”, and hence remove whatever inklings of duty might have remained up until that point. Doesn’t cost a lot, brings in plenty—a business plan so perfect that it’s basically the modus operandi for all interactions between the US Government and sufficiently large (or connected) companies, although of course many of them aren’t so completely flagrant about it.