BLM director: All employees should have access to ethics guidelines and training

BLM director seeks ethics improvements

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Days after it came out that a Bureau of Land Management official took gifts from an oil company, the director of the agency said he’ll accept the recommendations of a group that has been studying for a year how to improve the BLM’s ethics programs.

Director Bob Abbey announced this week in a memo to state directors that he wants the agency to help employees avoid potential and actual conflicts of interest.

The agency plans to bolster the role of its ethics counselors nationwide.

Abbey’s memo comes just days after it was revealed through a federal investigation that a former BLM manager in New Mexico who oversaw one of the nation’s largest onshore mineral production areas took gifts from an oil company and misused travel funds.