Department of the Interior
Departmental Manual
Effective Date: 9/8/97
Series: Organization
Part 118: Minerals Management Service
Chapter 7: Royalty Management Program
Originating Office: Minerals Management Service
118 DM 7
7.1 Associate Director for Royalty Management. The Royalty Management Program (RMP) ensures the efficient, timely, and accurate collection and disbursement of mineral leasing and production revenue due to Indian Tribes and allottees, States, and the U.S. Treasury. The Associate Director provides management policy and direction for the Program in carrying out its mission. Responsibilities for these functions are shared with a Deputy Associate Director, and implementation is performed by 11 divisions/offices: including three program offices, three operations divisions, and five compliance divisions (see attached organization chart).
7.2 Office of Enforcement. The Office of Enforcement coordinates all enforcement activities including debt collection, Notices of Noncompliance, civil penalties, criminal referrals, litigation, and alternative dispute resolution to gain compliance with RMP regulations and orders. Further, the Office of Enforcement manages related program-level activities including the bankruptcy support process, internal/management control evaluations, and external oversight matters.
7.3 Office of Indian Royalty Assistance. The Office of Indian Royalty Assistance is the RMP focal point to coordinate Indian issues including mineral trust responsibilities, policies, and procedures. This office provides customer service to individual Indian mineral owners and Tribes (other than those participating in delegated audit agreements), by conducting outreach, education, and consultation.
7.4 Washington Royalty Office. The Washington Royalty Office provides staff support to the Associate Director in all areas of the Royalty program. The Office participates in the development and oversees the processing of all RMP rules and regulations.
7.5 Accounting and Reports Division. The Accounting and Reports Division performs a variety of mineral revenue accounting and revenue and production reporting functions. The Division also manages a lease and payor information reference data base that supports all RMP mineral functions.
7.6 Royalty Valuation Division. The Royalty Valuation Division provides product valuation of the minerals produced on Federal, Outer Continental Shelf, and Indian lands. This includes establishing the fair market value of commodities, issuing royalty valuation determinations, and authorizing adjustments to the valuation base used for royalty calculations. This Division also performs economic analyses, reporting error correction, reference data base, and related supporting functions.
7.7 Systems Management Division. The Systems Management Division provides a broad range of computer and related technology services to the RMP and its clientele. The Division oversees a mainframe computer center, data and program servers, local and wide-area networks, and client desktop workstations. This architecture serves as the vehicle for delivering systems capabilities in the area of royalty and production accounting and administrative support.
7.8 Compliance Divisions.
A. The Compliance Divisions located in Dallas and Houston, Texas, and Lakewood, Colorado, perform a wide variety of compliance activities. These include systems-based exception processing activities and comprehensive company, payor, and mineral property or other specialized audits. The Divisions initiate corrective and enforcement actions.
B. The Compliance Verification Division conducts a variety of verification, exception processing and enforcement activities for detecting and following-up on production and royalty reporting discrepancies to assure compliance with royalty rules. This includes detection of late and underpayments, improper recoupments, rents, minimum royalties, allowance discrepancies, royalty rate mismatches, and comparison of production and sales data. Further, the Division oversees the processing of refund requests subject to Section 10 of the Outer Continental Lands Act and provides customer service expertise on reporting problems. The Division also provides compliance assistance in identification of potential audit candidates.
C. The State and Indian Compliance Division administers cooperative and delegated audit functions conducted by States and Indian Tribes under sections 202 and 205 of the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 and the Minerals Leasing Act of 1920, as amended.
9/8/97 #3174
Replaces 12/9/96 #3108