GAO offers recommendations for Bureau of Land Management inspection program
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued three recommendations to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regarding improving an inspection program ensuring compliance with public safety and environment laws.
The GAO said the recommendations stem from private companies operating over 140,000 oil and gas wells on federal and Indian lands and the determination BLM’s inspection program wasn’t effectively allocating its workforce.
The BLM’s six busiest field offices handled 58 percent of the inspection workload between FYs 2012-2016 but had only 44 percent of the inspection staff.
BLM state office personnel told GAO some human capital and workload challenges hindered their ability to complete reviews, including long-term vacancies in some state offices positions.
The GAO is recommending the Director of BLM should identify the reasons internal control reviews were not completed, develop and implement a plan to address those reasons, and monitor state offices’ progress toward completing required reviews. The Director of BLM should also develop and document procedures for implementing internal control reviews under the July 2012 oversight policy. Lastly, the Director of BLM should implement a risk-informed approach to scheduling and conducting internal control reviews that take into account the risks to BLM’s mission, such as those inherent in field offices’ workload and workforce.
