For the fourth time in five years, the BLM’s law
enforcement division has been blasted for shenanigans that were at
best imprudent. An audit prepared by the Department of the Interior
found that during 1991-92 the division’s 69 special agents
misrepresented their case loads and misused their $27 million
two-year budget. According to the report: fully 41 percent of the
cases logged by the agents should never have been undertaken or
assigned case numbers; agents billed $1.3 million in overtime for
routine activities which often did not legally merit the expense;
and the agency spent $600,000 on expensive vehicles which were then
used by the agents for commuting. Taking vehicles home was
necessary in case of an emergency, the agents said, but auditors
couldn’t find any instance where a special agent had to respond to
emergency calls after hours. Dennis McLane, acting director of the
division, said the audit had been helpful but that much of the
criticism was based on bookkeeping errors. “In terms of the records
available to them, it’s accurate,” he says, “but in terms of what I
know of what we’ve been accomplishing, I think it’s misleading.”
For a copy of the Audit Report on Selected Law
Enforcement Activities, Bureau of Land Management (No. 94-I-1351),
contact the office of the Inspector General at the Department of
the Interior, 202/208-4356.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Especially expensive agents.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
