The OIG investigated allegations that a former Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) official may have shown favoritism when awarding Government contracts to a particular company. The complainant stated that the former official, who left BSEE to work for the company, may have participated in awarding a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) to the company before leaving BSEE and that he later influenced subsequent awards made under the BPA.
After interviewing current and former BSEE employees who were either involved in awarding the initial BPA or the subsequent awards to the company, we did not find evidence that the former official had any influence or involvement in these actions during or after his employment at BSEE. During our investigation, we did find that the former official had communicated with his former coworkers at BSEE after he left, but we did not find that these communications violated Federal ethics rules.