Interior Dept. disciplines workers

WASHINGTON - The Interior Department has taken disciplinary action against more than a half dozen workers who accepted lavish gifts, partied, and in some cases had sex with employees from the energy companies they regulated.

The actions announced yesterday range from a warning letter to termination. The Interior Department would not confirm how many employees were fired, citing privacy.

The eight employees worked in the Denver office of the Minerals Management Service, an Interior Department bureau in charge of collecting billions of dollars in federal oil royalties.

The department's inspector general released a report in September that referred to a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" in the office from 2002 through 2006.

During that time, the report found, some employees were getting drunk and having sex with oil company personnel. The report also highlighted instances in which co-workers in the office used cocaine and marijuana.

Much more widespread were the golf and ski trips, snowboarding lessons, and concert tickets that workers in the office accepted from oil companies. Nearly a third of the 55-person staff in the Denver office had accepted gifts, but only nine workers had exceeded the $20-per-gift limit or $50-a-year threshold on outside gifts, the report found.

Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, said yesterday that "the behavior of some MMS employees before 2007 was clearly inappropriate and warranted strong administrative action."

Eight of those workers were still employed with the agency when the scandal broke. At least three of the employees are still working there, based on calls made by the Associated Press to the Denver office.

After the investigation, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne had vowed to take swift action to squelch what he called an "ethics storm." He had already hired a new director for the office and strengthened ethics training. Disciplinary procedures prevented him from suspending or firing employees for at least a month.

ASSOCIATED PRESS