Technically, you're correct. It was done after Obama assumed the presidency. But it was done before he had anyone in place at MMS. It was the Bush left overs that made the decision to give them the safety award.
I hate to burst your blame Bush bubble, (I don't actually, but I am trying to appear nice) but most of the people in MMS are career bureaucrats, and the last guy to inspect Deepwater Horizon was a rookie.
Who were all left over from the Bush administration. I never said the people there were political appointees. So, my bubble is still intact. Ant the Bush political appointees created a culture of corruption at MMS.
Scandal isnt new to MMS. Perhaps the most notable embarrassment came in September of 2008. MMS Employees, who are tasked with ensuring that taxpayers get their share of oil and gas revenues from companies drilling on federal land, were fired for accepting gifts, favors - even sex - from oil industry employees. Some admitted using marijuana and cocaine on the job.
When so-called oil for sex scandal broke Danielle Brian the Executive Director for Project on Government Oversight told ABC News, They have not only not been doing their jobs, but they have not been doing it because they have literally been in bed with who they are supposed to be overseeing,
Under the Bush Administration, the Interior Department as a whole was rocked by one scandal after another. Sharon Buccino of the Natural Resources Defense Council told ABC News that for years it was completely mismanaged.
Unfortunately we had people in control under the Bush administration who really put the interest and the profit of their friends in the oil and gas, coal industry front and center, Buccino said.