Reports

Unfounded Allegations of Bias and False Statements by USBR Employees

The OIG initiated an investigation after an inventory of a safe located in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Office of Law Enforcement and Security (OLES), found that thousands of dollars in gift cards were unaccounted for. We found 119 gift cards in the safe, valued at $2,345, and property receipts that indicated more than $10,000 in gift cards had been provided to a former OLES official and another BLM employee to use towards official purchases.

OIG investigated allegations that Joseph Dubois filed a fraudulent surety bond to secure a contract at the Pine Hill School, Ramah Chapter of the Navajo Nation, NM. We found that the Ramah Navajo School Board contracted Dubois to renovate a building at the Pine Hill School. The contracts required him to obtain and provide a surety bond, but instead Dubois produced a fictitious surety bond that falsely appeared to be under the authority of a legitimate surety company. Dubois pled guilty to passing fictitious obligations and to tax evasion in U.S.

The OIG investigated approximately $1,600 in fraudulent charges that were made on several Government charge cards issued to a U.S. Geological Survey employee. We found no evidence that the employee made the fraudulent charges and we discovered that a friend of the employee may have been responsible. As a result, we closed our investigation and referred this matter to the local police department.

The OIG investigated allegations that a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) senior official approved or directed the approval of two drawdowns totaling approximately $3.1 million from an Operation, Maintenance, and Replacement (OMR) Trust Fund designated for a regional rural water system (RWS) at a time when the RWS was years from completion and had few, if any, OMR expenses.