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Audience members ask questions at the High Level Panel Discussion IMF Seminar “Digitalization: Revolutionizing Fiscal Policy and Systems” at IMF Headquarters during the 2017 IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, DC. April 23, 2017.©IMF Photo
More than 1,000 mayors, managers, community planners, locally elected officials and guests from throughout Michigan will descend on Grand Rapids, Michigan, Sept. 20-22 for the joint 2018 Michigan Municipal League and Michigan Association of Planning (MAP) convention. This is the first time ever the League and MAP have joined forces to combine their two annual fall conferences (the League’s Convention and MAP’s Planning Michigan Conference) into a single massive gathering. And it’s all happening during the 2018 ArtPrize in Grand Rapids. Most convention education sessions and trainings will take place in Amway Grand Hotel and DeVos Place, but there also is an extensive series of mobile workshops throughout the area that will put a spotlight on the positive things happening in the community.
The Convention is the League's premiere annual event and a chance to inform and highlight community accomplishments. The League is especially excited to be in Grand Rapids this year with MAP because the west-Michigan community has a lot of the placemaking assets the League has identified as making up vibrant communities, including walkability and physical design, arts and culture, economic development, entrepreneurship, strong education base and much more.
Both the League and MAP serve the education and advocacy needs of elected and appointed leaders and the staff that support them: managers and administrators, professional planners, and other city, village and township leaders that make up the teams that work in tandem to create vibrant, successful, and healthy communities. Because the League and MAP are collaborating on this event, we’ll have double the power to bring more of what our members want. Attendees have more breakout sessions, more topics, and more mobile tours to choose from than ever before.
The event View the Convention program here: blogs.mml.org/wp/events/files/2014/06/2018-Convention-Pro....
Other Convention highlights include:
- The official launch of the next phase of the SaveMICity municipal finance reform effort.
- The selection of the 2018 Community Excellence Award (CEA) winner. The CEA is the League’s most prestigious community award. The 12th annual CEA competition started earlier this year and is down to four final projects. The finalists will give presentations Thursday and Convention attendees will vote, with the winner announced Saturday (Sept. 22) morning. Go here to read a press release about the four finalists: www.mml.org/newsroom/press_releases/2018-8-6-Community-Ex... and checkout the CEA website here: cea.mml.org/.
- Michigan Municipal Executive (MME) Colloquium: Empowering Communities to Set Their Own Destinies with keynote general session speaker Patrice Frey, President and CEO of the National Main Street Center – 9-10:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 20.
- Great Place to Live Townhall general session featuring Phil Power and the Center for Michigan’s Truth Tour – 11 am -12:15 p.m. Thursday.
- The New Localism: Utilizing Public, Private, and Civic Partnerships to Become a Change Engine general session featuring Bruce.Katz,.Co-Author, The New Localism, noon-1:45 Friday, Sept. 21
- Closing General Session about Civic Engagement Strategy: Inclusivity for the Win moderated by Carla Gribbs, Regional Manager, DTE Energy; and featuring Karen Freeman-Wilson, Mayor, Gary, Indiana; 1st Vice President, National League of Cities, 10:30-noon Saturday, Sept. 22
- Michigan Green Communities (MGC) Awards Lunch and Workshop, 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Thursday
- Selection of the 2018-19 new League board members and board president and vice president, Friday, Sept. 21.
- Michigan Municipal League Foundation fund-raising event, Friday evening
- Michigan Association of Mayors breakfast and annual meeting, Friday morning.
- Michigan Women in Municipal Government meeting and breakfast, Friday morning.
- Michigan Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials meeting and breakfast, Friday morning.
- Amazon: Michigan’s Wake Up Call or the Beginning of the End featuring the League’s Anthony Minghine and Khalil Rahal, assistant county executive, Wayne County, 2-3:15 p.m.Thursday.
- HR Up in Smoke: The Intersection between Marihuana legislation and empowerment law featuring Charles Mitchell, Senior Assistant City Attorney, City Attorney’s Office, Denver CO; Jennifer Rigterink, Legislative Associate, State and Federal Affairs, Michigan Municipal League, 1:45-3:15 Thursday.
- Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act: Back to the Basics featuring Anne Seurynck, Attorney, Foster Swift Collins & Smith PC, 2-3:15 p.m. Thursday
- Hit Them with Your Best Shot: Attracting Businesses and Developers featuring Katharine Czarnecki, Senior Vice President, Community Development, MEDC; Nicole Whitehead, Director, Sales & Service Operations, MEDC, 2-3:15 p.m. Thursday
- Mobile workshops: Envision Ada: Transforming a Suburban Strip Commercial Center into an Integral Part of an Historic Village; All Around Downtown, Uptown, Eastown; New Urbanism in Practice; Viva la Avenida: Planning for a Cultural Corridor, all 2-5 p.m. Thursday
- Unleash the Power of Small-Scale Manufacturing with Ilana Preuss, Recast City LLC, 2-5 p.m. Thursday
- Creating Sustainable Retail Districts featuring Bobby Boone, AICP, LEED AP, Small Business Retail Manager, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation; Martha Potere, AICP, Strategy and Special Projects Manager, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, 3:30-4:45 p.m. Thursday
- Host City reception by Urban Metro Mayors and Managers at the Grand Rapids Downtown Market, Thursday
- Infrastructure, Natural Resources, and the Blue Economy with speakers Tyler Kilfman, Planner, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG); Kevin Vettraino, AICP, Plan Implementation Manager, Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), 9-10:15 a.m. Friday
- Fostering an Inclusive Community Environment Hosted by the Michigan Black Caucus with speakers : Lois Allen-Richardson, Councilmember, Ypsilanti; President, MBC-LEO; Oronde Miller, Program Officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Stacy Stout, Assistant to the City Manager, Grand Rapids; Howard Walters, Program and Evaluation Officer, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 9-noon Friday
- Mobility: The Community Conversation with speakers Sarah Latta Rainero, Regional Director, Community Assistance Team, Community Development, Michigan Economic Development Corporation; Tyler Bevier, Transportation Planner, Bay Area Transportation Authority; Adela Spulber, Transportation Systems Analyst, Center for Automotive Research, 9-10:30 am Friday
- CNU Rules for Great Places: The Project for Code Reform featuring Mary Madden, AICP, Principal, Ferrell Madden; Richard Murphy, Program Coordinator, Civic Innovations, Michigan Municipal League; Heather Seyfarth, AICP, Community Engagement Specialist, Ann Arbor; Vice President, Michigan Association of Planning, 9-10:30 am Friday
- More mobile workshops: Explore: ArtPrize10; From Grand Rapids’ Downtown to Your Town: Idea Tour for Building Reuse; Vital Streets in Action Bike Tour; The Modern Orchard at Robinette’s Apple Haus and Winery, all are 9-noon Friday
- Master Planning: The Critical Role of Elected Leaders and the Planning Commission with speakers Adam Young, AICP, Senior Project Manager, Wade Trim; Chris McLeod, AICP, City Planner, Sterling Heights; Mark Vanderpool, City Manager, Sterling Heights, 10:45-noon Friday
- Social Media Pitfalls and Upsides for Communities with speakers Amy Snow-Buckner, Acting Managing Director of Communications, Grand Rapids; Matt Bach, Director, Communications, Michigan Municipal League; Jim Thorburn, Detective/Social Media Director, Allen Park Police Department, 10:45-noon Friday
- We Need More Parking! (But Do We Really?) with Tom Brown, Principle, Nelson\Nygaard; Bradley Strader, AICP, PTP, Transportation Planner, MKSK; Nicole VanNess, Manager, Traverse City DDA, 10:45-noon Friday
- Even more mobile workshops: Frederik Meijer Gardens; Terra Square and the Seeds of a New Downtown in Hudsonville; Under, Over, and All Around, all are 2-5 p.m. Friday
- Improving the Tone and Quality of our Civic Discourse with speakers John Bebow, President & CEO, The Center for Michigan/Bridge Magazine; Melanie Piana, Councilmember, Ferndale, Vice President, Michigan Municipal League Board, 2:15-3 p.m. Friday
- The Keys to Putting Ethics into Action with Christopher Johnson, General Counsel, Michigan Municipal League; Marlon Brown, Mayor Pro Tem, Mason; Michael McGee, Chief Executive Officer, Miller Canfield; Eleanor Siewert, Professional Registered Parliamentarian, Assignment: Effective Procedures, 2:15-3 p.m. Friday, 2:15-3 p.m. Friday
- Smart, Accessible, Connected - this high-level panel discussion covers the future of cities in the context of advanced mobility technologies, including connected and automated vehicles, ridesharing, carsharing, ridehailing, mobility-as-a-service, and microtransit with speakers Adela Spulber, Transportation Systems Analyst, Center for Automotive Research (CAR) Speakers: Kelly Bartlett, Senior Policy & Legislative Advisor, Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT); Zahra Bahrani Fard, Transportation Systems Analyst, Center for Automotive Research; Dr. Jonathan Levine, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan, 2:15-3 p.m. Friday
The Power of the Wind: A Michigan Story with a focus on renewable energy featuring speakers Sarah Mills, Senior Project Manager, University of Michigan Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy; Emily Palacios, Principal, Miller Canfield, 2:15-3:45 p.m. Friday
- The Sky’s the Limit: Big Data, Drones, and the Internet of Things with Daniel Brooks, Co-Founder, Quantifly; Adrianna Jordan, AICP, Co-Founder, Quantifly; Zachary Halberd, Co-Founder, Quantifly, 3:45-5 p.m. Friday
It’s Budget Time. Do you Know Where Your Revenue Is? With John Hoppough, Mayor, Greenville; Jacob Kain, City Planner, Mount Pleasant; Richard Murphy, Program Coordinator, Civic Innovations, Michigan Municipal League, Eilis Seide, Assistant to the City Manager, East Lansing, 9-10:15 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 22
Short Term Rentals: Trends, Impacts & Options with speakers Robert Monetza, Councilmember, Grand Haven; Ulrik Binzer, CEO, Host Compliance; Jennifer Rigterink, Legislative Associate, 9-10:15 a.m. Saturday
And yes even more mobile tours: Farmers Markets and Food Halls as Catalysts for Business and Real Estate Development; Restoring the Rapids: A Tour of Grand River Restoration Efforts, both 9-noon Friday
Photos of the 2018 Convention will be uploaded to flickr throughout the Convention can be downloaded from the League’s flickr page: flickr.com/photos/michigancommunities for free. We just ask that the following photo credit be given like this: Michigan Municipal League/mml.org. Thanks!
Michigan Municipal League advocates on behalf of its member communities in Lansing, Washington, D.C., and the courts; provides educational opportunities for elected and appointed municipal officials; and assists municipal leaders in administering services to their communities through League programs and services.
Image ©Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 18/10/2018. London, United Kingdom. Policy Exchange.
From left to right; Admiral Lord West, Brian Wood MC, Dean Godson, General Petraeus, Julie Marionneau and Johnny Mercer MP, during a panel at Policy Exchange in an event on the legal pursuit of veterans.
Picture by Gustavo Valiente / i-Images
14 January 2016 - Opening of the OECD Policy Forum on the Future of Work. OECD, Conference Centre, Paris, France. Guy Ryder, General Director, International Labour Organisation.
For more information, visit: www.oecd.org/employment/ministerial/policy-forum/
Photo: OECD/Marco Illuminati
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Puthyvuth Sok
Secretary of State
Ministry of Post and Telecommunications
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
Policy Statements ITU PP-22
H.E. Mr Md. Daud ALI
Ambassador
Bangladesh Embassy in Bucharest
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia, Ambassador Mahamat Saleh Annadif, listens on the first day of a workshop in the Ugandan capital Kampala to draft Somalia's national gender policy designed to explore and develop gender-sensitive policy whilst providing a framework to the government that will encourage and enforce gender equality. The Federal Government of Somalia supported by AMISOM civilian component will be drafting its first National Gender Policy which will aim to eradicate gender inequality, empower women and benefit all people of Somalia. The workshop facilitated by the mission's civilian component, will bring together politicians from the Somali Federal Government, Somalia Directorate of Women and Social Affairs, Somali women’s rights activists and NGOs, female peacekeepers from the AMISOM military and police components as well as the African Union Gender Directorate. Photo taken 12 June, 2013. AU-UN IST PHOTO / ISAAC KASAMANI.
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Darsanand Balgobin
Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation
Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP-22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Abulbaset ALBAOUR
Chairman
General Authority for Communications and Informatics
Bucharest, Romania
28th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
21 May 2019: Artificial Intelligence: Next Steps
Moderator: Dirk Pilat, Deputy Director, Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD
Scene Setting: Anne Carblanc, Head of Division, Division for Digital Economy Policy, Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD
Speakers:
Jim Kurose, Assistant Director, National Science Foundation (NSF) Wonki Min, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea; Chair, Digital Economy Policy Committee, OECD, Chiara Tomasi, Public Policy and Government Relations Senior Analyst, Google
Closing keynote speech :
Michael Kratsios, Deputy Assistant to the President for Technology Policy and Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer
OECD Headquarters, Paris.
Photo : © Hervé Cortinat / OECD
Policy Statements ITU PP-22
H.E. Mr Amr Talaat
Minister of Communications and Information Technology
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
Bucharest, Romania
26 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
Google+ Privacy Policy
June 28, 2011
The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services, including information provided when you use Google+. In addition, the following describes our additional privacy practices specific to Google+.
If you use the mobile version of Google+, the Mobile Privacy Policy applies in addition to this Google+ Privacy Policy.
Information we collect and how we use it
We will record information about your activity - such as posts you comment on and the other users with whom you interact - in order to provide you and other users with a better experience on Google services.
We may also collect information about you from other users, such as when someone puts you in one of their circles or tags you in a photo. Some users may choose to display information about you publicly, such as by displaying your public profile name and photo on their Google Profile in a list of people they’ve added to their circles.
Google Profile.
In order to use Google+, you need to have a public Google Profile visible to the world, which at a minimum includes the name you chose for the profile. That name will be used across Google services and in some cases it may replace another name you’ve used when sharing content under your Google Account. We may display your Google Profile identity to people who have your email address or other identifying information.
Posts and other content shared by or with you - such as photos of you - may be visible on your profile to those with whom that content has been shared. You can use the profile editor to see how your profile appears to particular individuals.
Circles.
You can add people into different circles to share information with a group. People in your circles (but not the name of the circle) will appear to others on your Google Profile, unless you choose not to display that information. You can manage the people in your circles here.
Photos and Videos.
If you upload a photo or video to Google+, we will store that content in a Picasa web album and enable the Picasa Web Albums product for your Google Account if you haven’t already used Picasa. The Picasa Privacy Policy will apply to your use of Picasa, in addition to this Google+ privacy policy. If you do not want us to store metadata (such as photo details) associated with your photos and videos, please remove that data before uploading the content.
Notifications
may be sent to you or to other people when you take certain actions in Google+, such as adding people to a circle, starting a hangout or tagging someone in a photo.
Location.
When using Google+ on your mobile device, Google collects your location to provide the service (such as to display nearby posts to you), as described when you sign up for the mobile version of the product. When you post content to Google+ from your mobile device, you may opt out of the collection and display of your location on a per-post basis or choose to exclude your location from all of your posts. When posting from a non-mobile device, you can choose to add your location on a per-post basis.
We may display posts to which you’ve attached your location to users who seek to view Google+ posts "nearby" the location where you created your post. Those posts will be viewable only by those with whom the content has been shared.
+1 Button and Personalization off Google.
If you +1 content in Google+ (such as a friend’s public post), the uses of that action and your choices are as described in the +1 Button Privacy Policy.
Uses of the collected information
In addition to the above, our uses of the information you provide to us are described in the Google Privacy Policy.
We may share aggregate statistics about Google+ activity with the public, our users, and partners, such as publishers, app developers, or connected sites.
Your Choices in addition to those described above
Account Settings.
You can access and edit your account settings - including privacy settings - through Account Settings or from the upper-righthand corner when you are logged into certain Google products. Among other things, in Account Settings you can change the settings for notifications we send to you.
Sharing.
You can choose to whom you send items in Google+. All recipients of a post may be able to see some information about the other people who have received it. Participants added to a group conversation may be able to see the history of that conversation (including participants added to group conversations in the mobile Huddle feature). Also, be aware that when you share something through Google+, anyone who received it may share it with others.
Photos.
After someone tags you in a shared photo or video, you may choose to remove the tag.
Third Party Apps.
You may choose to access Google+ through third-party applications (e.g. non-Google websites) by authorizing these applications to access all or part of your Google Account via the Access Request page. The developer of the application may have access to your email address and to the content you have access to in Google+ (such as content friends have shared with you). The developer may also request additional information from you, such as your location for mobile features of Google+. You can revoke the developer's access to your Google Account at any time by visiting this settings page.
App providers (such as game providers) may send you notifications directly. You will need to contact the app provider to change the type and frequency of notifications they send to you.
If your friends use apps, those applications may gain access to content and information about you that those friends can access.
Local storage on your device.
We will store data (such as your recent posts) locally in your browser. You may be able to access and clear this information in your browser settings.
More information
Google adheres to the U.S. Safe Harbor privacy principles. For more information about the Safe Harbor framework or our registration, see the Department of Commerce's web site.
© Google · Google+ Privacy Policy
Argyroxiphium sandwicense subsp. macrocephalum (Ahinahina, Haleakala silversword)
Habitat with pompilid wasp Ceropales maculata stretchii at Sliding Sands Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii.
October 18, 2011
PP-22 - Policy Statements
Ms Eka Kubusidze
Head of Communications, Information and Modern Technologies Department of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia
Bucharest, Romania
28th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Ishaq Sider
Minister
Ministry of Telecom & IT Palestine
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
Kirstjen Nielsen (L), Senior Fellow, Homeland Security Policy Institute, USA; Global Agenda Council on Risk & Resilience and Frederick Kempe (R), President and Chief Executive Officer, The Atlantic Council, USA; Global Agenda Council on the United States interact during the session 'Davos Insights on Crisis and Cooperation' at the Annual Meeting 2015 of the World Economic Forum at the congress centre in Davos, January 24, 2015.
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM/swiss-image.ch/Photo Valeriano DiDomenico
The CSIS International Security Program cordially invites you to a Military Strategy Forum discussion of:
On December 8, the CSIS Global Health Policy Center will host a major day-long conference on the future of global malaria efforts. It will open with a high-level deliberation over the strategic long-term goal of elimination, highlighting the political, financial, and institutional requisites. It will feature expert roundtables on drug and insecticide resistance, future technologies (vaccines, therapies, diagnostics), and financing. There will be a special focus on civilian-military cooperation in the Mekong Subregion. On that day, CSIS will release five commissioned policy analyses.
RSVP here.
Conference Agenda:
8:45am-9:00am Welcome remarks
Video: Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General, WHO
Dr. J. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and Director, CSIS Global Health Policy Center
9:00-10:15 Roundtable: Future Vision for Global Action on Malaria
Dr. Alan Magill, Director, Malaria, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Dr. Bernard Nahlen, Deputy Coordinator, President’s Malaria Initiative
Dr. David J. Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Force Health Protection and Readiness
Moderator: Dr. J. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and Director, CSIS Global Health Policy Center
10:15-11:15 Panel: Financing of a Global Elimination Strategy
Dr. Jen Kates, Director of Global Health & HIV Policy, Kaiser Family Foundation
Dr. Mead Over, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development
Mr. Todd Summers, Senior Adviser, CSIS Global Health Policy Center
Moderator: Ms. Amy Studdart, Deputy Director and Fellow, William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy
11:15-12:00 Break
12:00-1:30 Luncheon: Civilian-Military Cooperation in the Mekong Subregion
RADM Colin Chinn, Command Surgeon, U.S. Pacific Command
Dr. Mark Fukuda, CDC Malaria Advisor, President’s Malaria Initiative Greater Mekong Subregion
Maj General Vu Quoc Binh, Director General, Military Medical Department, Vietnam People’s Army
Dr. Nipon Chinanonwait, Director, Thai Bureau of Vector Borne Diseases
Dr. Aung Thi, Director, Myanmar National Malaria Control Programme
Moderator: Dr. Alan Magill, Director, Malaria, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
1:30-2:30 Panel: Evolving Technologies in the Push for Elimination
Dr. Ashley Birkett, Director, PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative
Dr. Christopher Plowe, Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Mr. Paul LaBarre, Senior Technical Officer, PATH
Moderator: Dr. Regina Rabinovich, Exxon Mobil Scholar in Residence, Harvard School of Public Health
2:30-3:30 Panel: The Threat of Artemisinin and Pyrethroid Resistance
Dr. Pascal Ringwald, Coordinator, WHO Drug Resistance and Containment Unit
Dr. Fredros Okumu, Research Scientist, Ifkara Health Institute
Dr. Martin Akogbeto, Director, Centre de Recherché Entomologique de Cotonou (CREC)
Dr. Christopher Plowe, Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Moderator: Dr. S. Patrick Kachur, Chief, CDC Malaria Branch
This event will be webcast live at www.SmartGlobalHealth.org/Live.
Breakfast and lunch will be provided to registered guests.
Programs
GLOBAL HEALTH POLICY CENTER
Topics
GLOBAL HEALTH
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Behzad AHMADI
Deputy Minister and Head of Center of International relations of Information and Communication
Ministry of Information and Communications Technology
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Dr Mr Chris Baryomunsi
Minister of ICT and National Guidance
Uganda Communications Commission
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
While chatting with my Dutch friend Chris this morning on Whatsapp, I asked if he was off work today and he said yes, he's on vacation because we had planned to meet up in Ireland, remember??
Oh shit, yes, today is 12 May, 2020, I was supposed to fly out of Toronto for Dublin tonight, on Irish airlines Aer Lingus. Well! Aer Lingus is not even flying to Toronto these days, so needless to say my long-planned Irish trip is a no-go! : (
After refusing to change my flight (mainly because no one knows when people can travel and tourists can visit countries without mandatory quarantine again) and refusing to take a credit voucher, Aer Lingus finally sent me an email giving me the option to request a refund. Now there is no guarantee that I'd actually receive a refund or how much I'd get, that remains to be seen.
(I should add that I don't blame Aer Lingus -- after all I'm sure they would have preferred to fly me over to its beautiful home of Ireland if possible.)
PP-22 - Policy Statements
Mr Ian Mak
Assistant Chief Executive, International
Infocomm Media Development Authority
Bucharest, Romania
28th September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Ms Bella Cherkesova
Deputy Minister
Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
PP22 - Policy Statements
H.E. Mr Damian Collins
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Technology and the Digital Economy) at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
UK Government
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
14 January 2016 - Opening of the OECD Policy Forum on the Future of Work. OECD, Conference Centre, Paris, France.
For more information, visit: www.oecd.org/employment/ministerial/policy-forum/
Photo: OECD/Marco Illuminati
Policy Statements ITU PP-22
H.E. Mr Md. Daud ALI
Ambassador
Bangladesh Embassy in Bucharest
Bucharest, Romania
27 September 2022
©ITU/Rowan Farrell
Royalty in Kind
PAS411 - ETHICS POLICY and ADMINISTRATION
May 4, 2010
The Deepwater Horizon offshore oil platform, that caught fire on April 20, 2010 and eventually sank to the ocean floor, will stir angry debate for many years.
Much of this anger is focused on the oil “spillers”. In this case, there are two high profile companies that deserve this moniker, they are: Transocean Ltd., the owner of the drilling platform, registered in the Marshall Islands, and BP P.L.C., the owner of the oil reserve that this rig was plugged into. These spillers may be subjected to unlimited liability for the oil spill clean-up (U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2004) or may be exposed to expenses equal to the value of the oil rig – after the fire (Zubowski, 2010). Legal experts will eventually settle these details.
Along with these giant private companies, wrestling with this errant oil, there is a small government agency, rocked by scandal, that had approved the Deepwater Horizon drilling plan. (Devaney, 2008)
The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 gave the Department of the Interior (DOI) the responsibility of leasing and regulating federal ocean land and mineral rights to oil companies. The Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 demanded a more comprehensive system of determining, collecting and auditing oil lease fees and enforcing penalties. These added duties prompted the Secretary of the Interior to create the Minerals Management Service (MMS) within the DOI to administer responsibilities relating to natural gas and oil production on the Outer Continental Shelf (between 3 and 230 miles off the coast). This is the government service which approved the environmental impact study in which BP declared the improbability of a major oil spill from their leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig. (Mastrangelo, 2005)
The acceptance of this flawed impact study was a lapse in judgment given the sad benefit of hindsight. If segments of the MMS had ethical oversight, forcing disclosure of conflicts of interest and private financial data, the MMS may have had the focus and fortitude to demand safer offshore drilling practices.
The MMS, during the Deepwater approval period, was found to be passively avoiding adherence to government legal and ethical standards. A small group of individuals within the MMS was wholly lacking acceptance of these standards. (Devaney, 2008)
Royalties in Value, are those lease revenues collected from oil companies in the form of cash. Royalties in Kind, are those revenues collected in the form of oil. The cash revenue payments are handled within the standard operating procedures of the MMS. Checks and balances prevail, allowing straightforward oversight and forcing adherence to both government legal and ethical standards.
Revenues in kind, however, require that the government take possession of large quantities of oil and negotiate the sale of this oil on the open market. The complexity of this work prompted the Secretary of the Interior to create a Revenue in Kind Program (RIK) consisting of a small group of MMS professionals tasked with collecting the crude and turning it into cash.
This 65 employee program was administered by Gregory W. Smith from 2001 until 2007. Smith’s group was responsible for generating half of all revenues collected from government oil and gas leases. This amounted to six billion dollars in 2006 and gave these employees a high degree of autonomy. The RIK program was housed in Denver and was officially required to report to the Deputy Associate Director at the MMS Denver office. This director was bypassed by Smith who chose to deal with Director Lucy Dennet located 1500 miles away in Washington DC. This long distance chain of oversight, with an unprincipled director, promoted a culture of exclusivity, exempt from the rules that govern all other employees of the Federal Government. (Devaney, 2008)
A 41 page memorandum from the US Office of Inspector General (OIG) to the Secretary of the Interior, in 2008, details the ethical and legal transgressions discovered during a five million dollar OIG investigation. (Devaney, 2008)
This investigation stated that the Royalty in Kind employees donned a private sector approach to essentially everything they did. This included effectively opting themselves out of the Ethics in Government Act, both in practice, and, at one point, even explored doing so by policy or regulation.
The DOI inquiry revealed the following ethical violations by the Royal employees:
1.A culture of substance abuse, both on and off the job.
2.Alcohol abuse when staff socialized with industry.
3.Sexual relationships with industry employees.
4.Accepting gifts from oil and gas companies with which RIK did business.
5.Accepting consulting jobs with companies that stand to unfairly gain from RIK employee contacts. The income from this work was not disclosed on official financial reports.
6.Sexual relations with subordinates.
This misconduct was deemed to be easily discernable by MMS management but that they were blind to the misbehavior. They and many of their subordinates chose self-deceit as a filtering method for these obvious misdeeds. The whistle was finally blown on the RIK by a number of RIK professionals, fed up with the corruption they observed in more than a third of their fellow employees. Although the RIK program was created with aggressive goals and admirable ideals it lacked the necessary internal controls to ensure conformity to the most important agency principle: “Maintain the highest ethical and professional standards.”
References
Devaney, E. E. (2008). OIG Investigations of MMS Employees. Washington D.C: Office of Inspector General.
Mastrangelo, E. (2005). Overview of U.S. Legislation and Regulations Affecting Offshore Natural Gas and Oil Activity. Energy Information Administration, Office of Oil and Gas. Washington D.C.: US Energy Information Administration.
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2004, June). Spill Prevention, Planning, and Response. Retrieved April 29, 2010, from Region 6 | US EPA: www.epa.gov/earth1r6/6sf/pdffiles/document_oil_spill_prev...
Zubowski, C. (2010, April 28). Chilling details from aboard oil rig that exploded. Retrieved April 29, 2010, from KHOU News: www.kens5.com/news/Chilling-details-from-aboard-oil-rig-t...