Reports

OIG’s audit of grants to New York’s State Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Fish and Wildlife, included claims totaling approximately $171 million on 19 grants that were open during the State fiscal years that ended March 31, 2015, and March 31, 2016.

We investigated allegations that a senior official with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) made several comments that caused other DOI employees to question his ethics.

OIG investigated allegations that an Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) employee stole government equipment and committed time and attendance fraud. We determined the employee stole two stereoscopes and a mapping tool from OSMRE and that the equipment was obsolete and valued at approximately $150. The employee admitted she had the items in her possession, and without authorization. She said she later donated the property to a charity. We did not substantiate the allegation of time and attendance fraud. The U.S.

The OIG investigated allegations that Richard Ruggiero, Chief of the Division of International Conservation (DIC), International Affairs, U.S.

OIG investigated allegations that a former attorney-advisor for the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Office of the Solicitor (SOL), may have violated post-employment restrictions by representing a DOI employee in her Equal Employment Opportunity complaint against the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The former attorney-advisor made a counter allegation that she was the subject of harassment by the SOL. We found no evidence the former attorney-advisor was involved in matters during her tenure at DOI that would have prohibited her from representing her client.