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On February 22, 2005, the Department of Interior's Inspector
General released a report containing a scathing indictment
of the operations at the Office of Solicitor while William
Myers was the head. After a two-year investigation into an
outrageous settlement that gave a politically-connected Wyoming
rancher named Frank Robbins virtually carte blanche authority
to violate federal grazing laws, the DOI's Inspector General
Earl E. Devaney placed blame squarely upon the Office of Solicitor.
As Inspector General Devaney said in a summary of the report,
Myers' office "circumvented" normal negotiation
processes, shut the BLM out of the negotiations, ignored concerns
raised by the U.S. Department of Justice, engaged in "an
inappropriate level of programmatic involvement" and
presided over a negotiation and agreement process that suffered
from a "profound lack of transparency." As Devaney
understates it in his letter: "the interests of BLM and
those of individual BLM employees were not adequately protected
by the terms of the settlement agreement."
Please click the links below for more information:
1. Original CRC
release on IG report
2. February 22, 2005 full
report by Inspector General Devaney
3. February
10, 2005 IG summary letter
4. CRC's
initial release in response to the IG summary letter.
5. Background information
on the Robbins' settlement.
6. For media coverage from February 16, 2005, please click
on the relevant outlet -- Casper
Star-Tribune, Environment
& Energy News, Los
Angeles Times, and Washington
Post.
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