About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

GAO-25-108096 1 (May 9, 2025)

handle is hein.gao/ptyonrmmd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: GAOU.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Comptroller General Washington, DC 20548 of the United States May 9, 2025 The Honorable Doug Burgum Secretary U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C street, N.W. Washington, DC 20240 Priority Open Recommendations: Department of the Interior Dear Secretary Burgum: Congratulations on your appointment. The purpose of this letter is to call your personal attention to four areas based on GAO's past work and 14 open priority recommendations, which are enclosed.1 Additionally, there are 121 other GAO open recommendations that we will continue to work with your staff to address. We are highlighting the following areas that warrant your timely and focused attention. Specifically: Improving oversight of oil and gas activities. Interior has faced challenges with effectively overseeing oil and gas production as well as managing related risks. We have highlighted the need for Interior to improve its Management of Federal Oil and Gas Resources on our High Risk List for several years.2 Specifically, Interior faces challenges related to the compliance data systems to support the collection, accounting, and verification of revenues-including royalties paid by companies-from oil and gas production at federal lease sites. For example, Interior has yet to implement leading practices in executive-level IT governance for its major IT investments, as we recommended. Interior has also not completed recommendations to assess the cost and benefits of developing a royalty gap model and to periodically estimate royalty gaps to inform agency decision-making. Addressing these recommendations would improve its compliance activities to verify federal oil and gas royalties, potentially increasing collections by tens of millions of dollars per year. We have also outlined Interior's challenges with filling vacancies and maintaining the workforce it needs to manage oil and gas resources and verify their production and royalties. Implementing recommendations to address these issues would help Interior's ability to ensure the public receives a fair return for resources extracted from federal lands and waters. 1GAO considers a recommendation to be a priority if when implemented, it may significantly improve government operations, for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making progress toward addressing a high-risk or duplication issue. 2GAO, High-Risk Series: Heightened Attention Could Save Billions More and Improve Government Efficiency and Effectiveness, GAO-25-107743 (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 25, 2025). GAO-25-108096 Interior Priority Recommendations Page 1

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most