New Drilling Agency Will Have Investigative Arm

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By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: June 23, 2010

WASHINGTON — The new director of the federal agency that oversees offshore oil drilling told a Senate panel on Wednesday that he would create an investigative unit to root out corruption and speed reorganization of the office.

Michael R. Bromwich, who was appointed director of the Minerals Management Service last week, said in testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee that the new investigations team would report directly to him and would work closely with the Interior Department’s inspector general’s office, which has issued several tough reports on misconduct at the minerals service in the last decade.

Mr. Bromwich, a former inspector general in the Justice Department, referred to the unit as a form of SWAT team that could quickly act on charges against agency officials or the companies they are supposed to regulate.

“There is not that kind of investigative capability in my organization,” Mr. Bromwich said. “I think it is vital to create it, both to investigate internal allegations of misconduct, and to pursue with aggressiveness and diligence allegations that the companies are not doing what they are supposed to do, violated terms of their leases or made false statements or misconduct to obtain those leases.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/us/24interior.html