Employees of an agency of the U.S. Department of Interior responsible for oil exploration are involved in a corruption scandal that includes multiple bribes, including cocaine and sex, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report, drafted by the Inspector General Earl Devaney of the Interior, of which AFP obtained a copy, deplores "a culture of misconduct", as one of the departments of the agency there is "a culture of drug abuse and sexual promiscuity. "
After "more than two years' research, in which" 233 witnesses were interrogated, some many times "and studying" 470,000 pages of documents and correspondence, "Devaney discovered a" widespread culture of exclusivity, outside the rules that govern all other employees of the federal government. "
Between January 2002 and July 2006, 19 employees of service "oil royalties" (the portion of oil delivered by companies to the government in exchange for the right of exploitation) "attended" staff and received "a wide range of gifts" by oil companies that did business with.
The department "many employees admitted that the use of drugs (cocaine) and sexual encounters" were not rare. Also, many employees worked outside the agency without informing, as expected, the gain of his work in his affidavit.
