IG investigating complaint against top BLM official
- September 2, 2021
Scott Streater, E&E News
The Interior Department’s inspector general is investigating whether the Bureau of Land Management’s current leader violated ethics rules in the bureau’s decision last spring to pause a series of public lands orders in Alaska, according to a nonprofit watchdog group that requested the inquiry.
OIG investigator Michael Smith notified Protect the Public’s Trust in an email that it had conducted a “review” of the group’s initial complaint, filed in June, and that as of July 28 “the OIG’s Special Investigations and Reviews Unit will be investigating the complaint.”
“The fact that Interior’s IG is dedicating some of their scarce resources to investigate Protect the Public’s Trust’s complaint speaks to the seriousness of the allegations as well as the underlying conduct by Ms. Culver,” Chamberlain said in an emailed statement to E&E News.
“We look forward to the IG’s decision,” he added.