Darrell Issa is a man who takes his responsibilities to taxpayers seriously. For quite a while he has focused on mismanagement regarding how the Interior Department manages federal oil and gas resources. He spotted the problem there before others and now the Government Accountability Office has proven him to be a man ahead of his time.

The only new item added to a closely-watched report on the federal government's biggest management problems (which The Federal Eye scooped last evening) is concerned with how the Interior Department manages federal oil and gas resources. The report's authors specifically cited how the department managed the now-defunct Minerals Management Service that collected the royalties on federal oil and gas leases.

Appearing on the Government Accountability Office's "High-Risk Report" is no honor. It's like being on the principal's list of troubled students, or the boss's list of bad employees.

You won't see the Interior Department and other agencies crowing about appearing on this list, but you might get an "I told you so" from the lawmakers or outside groups who've tracked the troubled issues on the list.

Issa -- true to form -- is no exception....

But Issa has the right to speak out, because he's been tracking concerns with MMS since leading an investigation into the troubled agency's affairs as an Oversight subcommittee chairman in 2006.

Then, in Oct. 2009 -- six months before the Gulf Coast oil spill -- Issa proposed separating MMS from the Interior Department.

MMS would "benefit from a divorce" from Interior, and separating it would force lawmakers to track it more closely, he said at the time.

Issa worked with several environmental and employee groups and the Interior Department's inspector general to root out the problems. But few people noticed and few people cared until the agency's mismanagement became a worldwide embarrassment.