In a report posted online earlier today,
NASA’s Office of Inspector-General (OIG) criticizes NASA administrator Charles Bolden (right) over conflict-of-interest allegations involving an oil company.
The report confirms allegations that Bolden contacted Marathon Oil, a company in which he holds stock “valued at between $500,000 and $1 million,” for technical advice about a NASA project called “Offshore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae” or OMEGA, a $10 million effort to use algae and wastewater to generate fuel. At issue was whether Marathon had biofuels projects that might have benefited from a slow-down in OMEGA.
After the call, Bolden sent an email in which he told members of his senior staff “I continue to have doubts about the viability of this project [OMEGA],” but went on to say that if they were comfortable, NASA would keep the ball rolling on a proposed Memorandum of Understanding with the Navy to provide funding.
The OIG says Bolden’s behavior was “not consistent with the Ethics Pledge he, as an Administration appointee, had signed” and that it “raised concerns about an appearance of a conflict of interest involving the NASA Administrator and a large oil company to which he had financial ties.” But it found no evidence that Bolden slowed down OMEGA as a result of the contact or that he or Marathon benefit financially. And it concluded that the contact “did not violate federal laws or regulations pertaining to conflicts of interest.”
Some of the franker language in the report came from an email by Pete Worden, the Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, where OMEGA is based. “In the interest of open government and transparency I think my folks are entitled to know who talked to Charlie and the basis of their criticism so we can respond. This is frankly the worst of NASA and I don’t like it. It is “good ole boy” networks at it’s [sic] worst and not worthy of NASA and this Administration,” he wrote.
Bolden admitted to the OIG that it was “inappropriate” for him to contact Marathon and said he had recused himself from handling OMEGA in future. He had told members of his staff that he was unsure whether NASA should support alternative fuels development when other government agencies already do so.
The OIG also criticizes NASA’s Office of General Counsel for failing to tell the OIG about the allegations.
Image: Charles Bolden at NASA Ames Research Center/NASA