Suits Say U.S. Impeded Audits for Oil Leases

[jpak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/business/21royalty.html?_r=3&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 — Four government auditors who monitor leases for oil and gas on federal property say the Interior Department suppressed their efforts to recover millions of dollars from companies they said were cheating the government.

The accusations, many of them in four lawsuits that were unsealed last week by federal judges in Oklahoma, represent a rare rebellion by government investigators against their own agency.

The auditors contend that they were blocked by their bosses from pursuing more than $30 million in fraudulent underpayments of royalties for oil produced in publicly owned waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The agency has lost its sense of mission, which is to protect American taxpayers,” said Bobby L. Maxwell, who was formerly in charge of Gulf of Mexico auditing. “These are assets that belong to the American public, and they are supposed to be used for things like education, public infrastructure and roadways.”

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[Vincardog]

1. supposed to be used for things like education, public infrastructure and

roadways. No wonder the RepubliCANTS don't want to collect the money, it would be used to help people.

[Dover]

2. Well it's those very companies that Bushco works for. Our "government"

is just their tool. So of course issues like climate warming and the collection of taxes and royalties would be "overlooked" or misrepresented. Eventually, several major corporations would like our government to fail ultimately in order for the world to be governed by them. And everyone knows that the corporate culture is anything BUT democratic. They'd like to do away with representational-type governance and the mechanisms for citizen input. Just look at how the current regime has attacked our laws, our trust in government, our programs, our military and they have looted our financial reserves. They want to break it all down and rebuild it just like they are doing in Iraq. Iraq was going to be their model of how fascism can work. America already is operating under fascist rule.