"Audit Faults Interior Office's Oversight of Appraisals"

"The Interior Department office created to oversee billions of dollars of land appraisals is weak and undermined by other bureaus, leaving it unable to function efficiently, the Interior inspector general has found.

The Appraisal Services Directorate, or ASD, 'is not the strong and independent appraisal organization' envisioned when it was created in 2003 to remedy longstanding appraisal problems, the IG evaluation said.

The Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Reclamation 'remain unconvinced of the need for a consolidated organization and have repeatedly acted to regain control of the appraisal function, thus undermining ASD,' the report says."

Noelle Straub reports for Greenwire January 4, 2010.