Favors for Oil Scandal

A reader brought this story to my attention a couple of days ago, but it was too late for me to address it then and I didn't want to cover it on 9/11. By now, you may have heard about this story; but if not, let me warn you that it will make you angry at all the parties involved.

There are two versions of this story, both by AP reporter Dana Cappiello, which is kind of odd in and of itself, but the stories are consistent in the details.

The Reader's Digest version is this: oil industry negotiators engaged officials from the Interior Department in various forms of unethical behavior including "influencing contracts, working part-time as private oil consultants and having sexual relationships with — and accepting golf and ski trips, snowboarding lessons and concert tickets from — oil company employees."

Am I surprised by any of this? Not really... This is Big Government at its finest. While I would like to think that the oil industry is more mature than this sort of behavior, the reality is that these people are in the business of making money and while I certainly don't condone these shenanigans, I certainly am not shocked to discover that it is happening.

It is disappointing though. We should expect more from people who represent us and our businesses. Sadly, the Marc Dann / Eliot Spitzer model of doing business with the government is becoming more common and I'm afraid that the shock value of these revelations is starting to wear off to the point that eventually this sort of thing won't even be news anymore. This...

"During the course of our investigation, we learned that some RIK employees frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives,"

...is, I suspect, the tip of this particular iceberg. It is inexcusable for this type of behavior to be going on in the post-Enron world. Business AND Government needs to do more to ensure that ethical behavior is the standard and if that means a review of each and every deal over a certain dollar threshhold, then so be it. Of course, all that is going to do is create more red tape and run up the cost of business which is why it is in the interest of Big Business and Big Government to police themselves and to behave in a manner that reflects well on themselves.