A former Louisiana Cabinet official is being criticized for the way that he managed a program that was supposed to ensure that seafood from the Gulf of Mexico was safe to eat again. The program was intended to restore consumer confidence in Gulf seafood following the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill by showing that the seafood coming out of Gulf waters now is safe to eat. The program was supposed to involve testing of fish in Gulf waters to such a degree that it could conclusively be established whether the fish were safe to eat.
The former Louisiana Cabinet Official who is under scrutiny is Robert Barham. He does not agree with the auditors’ suggestions that the work that his office did on the fish testing project was shoddy. Barham says that the testing was conducted thoroughly and that his office did everything that they needed to do to examine whether the fish was safe to eat before the office declared that it is. The Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office is conducting an investigation into the matter. The Auditor’s Office claims that there was an insufficient sampling of fish to determine whether it is safe to eat. The Auditor’s office also asserts that Barham’s office engaged in excessive spending, and the acquisition of property that was purchased during the project but has since gone missing. The auditors claim that the fish testing program, which had been given ten and a half million dollars, had been so mismanaged that it is not even possible to determine with any degree of certainty whether the seafood in the Gulf is, in fact, safe to eat right now. The auditors also claim that Barham’s office spent money freely and with little oversight, and made questionable purchases.
BP had also questioned how the money was spent as well as the level of testing that was done. The company thought that more testing would be done, based on information that Barham’s office had provided in support of the purchase of a boat. Barham denied that the energy company had objected to the equipment that his office purchased. He also emphasizes that the money came from BP, and not from taxpayers.
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