Center controller reported the radar controller issue a direct clearance to an aircraft below the mi...

Narrative:

I was assigned to help the radar controller who was busy and dealing with some complexity. When I signed on as the assist; I got straight to work without a briefing because the radar controller was clearly dealing with too much. He did give me some key points verbally. One being; that he gave a release to an aircraft climbing to 12000 feet westbound to intercept an airway. He had an aircraft inbound from the south. When the departure came off; he was slow moving and slow climbing. This caused the radar controller to make a decision to clear the aircraft direct to a fix; which would mean his westbound turn would be quicker so he could get him out of the way of the arrival. The problem is he didn't ask the aircraft if he could maintain his own terrain and obstruction clearance to through 10000 feet since he was in a 9300 feet terrain block. I don't feel there was much I could do at that point since this was the radar controller's decision. I would recommend the radar controller to come up with a better solution to avoid this mistake.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Center Controller reported the Radar Controller issue a direct clearance to an aircraft below the Minimum Vectoring Altitude.

Narrative: I was assigned to help the Radar Controller who was busy and dealing with some complexity. When I signed on as the Assist; I got straight to work without a briefing because the Radar Controller was clearly dealing with too much. He did give me some key points verbally. One being; that he gave a release to an aircraft climbing to 12000 feet westbound to intercept an airway. He had an aircraft inbound from the south. When the departure came off; he was slow moving and slow climbing. This caused the Radar Controller to make a decision to clear the aircraft direct to a fix; which would mean his westbound turn would be quicker so he could get him out of the way of the arrival. The problem is he didn't ask the aircraft if he could maintain his own terrain and obstruction clearance to through 10000 feet since he was in a 9300 feet terrain block. I don't feel there was much I could do at that point since this was the radar controller's decision. I would recommend the Radar Controller to come up with a better solution to avoid this mistake.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1510842
Time
Date	201801
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZAB.ARTCC
State Reference	NM
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skylane 182/RG Turbo Skylane/RG
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Experience	Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 1
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Center controller reported the radar controller issue a direct clearance to an aircraft below the minimum vectoring altitude.