Management of Federal Energy and Mineral Resources

GAO presented its findings and discussed steps that it believes the Department of the Interior should take to improve the management of Federal energy and mineral resources. The past and potential future contribution of federally controlled energy and mineral resources is generally unquestioned. What is being questioned is where, when, and how exploration and development should occur in the future. Also being questioned is how these decisions should be made. This decisionmaking process was the focus of the GAO work. GAO found that the minerals management at Interior was unorganized and uncoordinated. Decisions affecting exploration and development of energy and mineral resources are made ad hoc and without reference to larger strategies for affected commodities or markets. Minerals management functions at Interior are split among a number of offices, and it is not always clear what each office's responsibilities are for these resources. GAO believes that the overriding deficiency is the lack of a department-level plan with the objectives to guide mineral managers and to establish standards of accountability for Federal resource managers whose decisions affect resource uses. GAO recommended that Interior develop a front-end planning document which could guide management decisions by: (1) identifying major issues and processes which must be addressed, (2) establishing objectives in addressing those issues and processes, (3) determining specific strategies for achieving those objectives, and (4) assisting in allocating resources needed to implement the plan. For minerals management, such a program plan would provide problem definition and objectives establishment as preliminary steps to initiating actions. It would also systematically identify the need for both administrative and legislative initiatives to correct problems. Most importantly, it would funnel the minerals management guidance from the Secretary all the way down to the lowest ranking resource manager and thus affect resource decisions to reach the goals and objectives set out by the Secretary. GAO concluded that program planning would offer to Interior a process which would allow the Secretary to develop a department-level plan to guide managers and would establish standards of accountability. The implementation of this program would be further enhanced by consolidation of Interior's mineral management authorities.