The Interior Department watchdog applauded improvements in how the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies handle valuable rights-of-way across federal property.
With hundreds of millions of dollars in fees and more than 100,000 rights-of-way on the line, Interior’s Office of Inspector General this week found in an assessment that the BLM, its sister agencies and the department’s Appraisal and Valuation Services Office had corrected myriad shortcomings previously identified in a 2012 audit.
“We found that although not all the recommendations have been implemented, AVSO and the bureaus addressed our findings by completing actions within their respective authorities,” the OIG reported.
The BLM, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation and Fish and Wildlife Service manage Interior’s rights-of-way on public and Indian lands for purposes ranging from cell towers and transmission lines to petroleum and natural gas pipelines.
