Interior Dept. Drug Test Program Found Flawed

An inspector general’s audit of the Interior Department’s employee drug testing program has uncovered widespread evidence of mismanagement, including inaccurate reporting of test results, mishandling of urine specimens, destruction of records and possible advance notification of employees to be tested.

As a result, the department “had no assurance that its employees were drug free,” concludes a report by the inspector general that was delivered Friday to Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr.

The audit, conducted from March through November of this year as part of an overall review of various funds and accounts in the office of the secretary, examined the performance of the agency’s federally mandated drug testing program during the period from January, 1989, to August, 1992.

The Interior Department’s drug program coordination staff had five full-time employees and annual operating budgets of $800,000 in 1990 and $650,000 in 1991. During the audit period, the program conducted drug tests on more than 15,000 employees and job applicants.

The report on the audit, a copy of which was obtained by the Post, also concludes that officials in charge of the program mismanaged funds by spending money intended for drug testing on a conference and on equipment and furniture that was not used or missing at the time of the audit.

Interior Department officials also charged other federal agencies $83,000 for “minimal” services and paid a specimen collection company $17,000 for specimens that did not meet government standards, and they never required the company to collect new specimens that met the standards, it said.

“We do not have any evidence of any criminal behavior,” Deputy Inspector General Joyce N. Fleischman said. “Basically what we have here is a program that was not run very well.”

Steven Goldstein, a spokesman for Lujan, said “corrective actions are being taken” to address the problems uncovered by the inspector general, including a review of the management of the program, which is ultimately supervised by John E. Schrote, assistant secretary for policy, management and budget.