-------------------------Indexing Terms-------------------------
REPORTNUM: GAO-06-731R
TITLE: Fish and Wildlife Service: Federal Assistance Program
Is Making Progress in Addressing Previously Identified Concerns
DATE: 07/05/2006
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GAO-06-731R
July 5, 2006
The Honorable Dave Camp
Chairman Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures
Committee on Ways and Means
House of Representatives
Subject: Fish and Wildlife Service: Federal Assistance Program Is Making
Progress in Addressing Previously Identified Concerns
Dear Mr. Chairman:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), within the Department of the
Interior, uses tax receipts from the sale of certain hunting, fishing, and
boating equipment to fund the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration
programs, which provide grants to state fish and wildlife management
agencies to restore, conserve, manage, and enhance wildlife and sport fish
resources. The Wildlife Restoration Program was established in 1938
following the passage of the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, now
referred to as the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act. The Sport
Fish Restoration Program was established in 1950 by the Dingell-Johnson
Sport Fish Restoration Act. Since their inception, according to the
Service, these programs have provided more than $9.5 billion in grants to
states and U.S. territories through fiscal year 2005. In 1999 and 2000,
GAO identified several instances of mismanagement in these grant programs.
Following GAO's work, Congress and the Service acted to improve the
programs. Enclosure I provides our April 2006 briefing to your
Subcommittee containing relevant details about problems and corrective
actions that the Service has taken since GAO's last review in 2000.
Enclosure II shows funding history for these two programs.
In 1999 and 2000, GAO testified on the Service's management and oversight
of funds used to administer the Wildlife and the Sport Fish Restoration
programs. These testimonies identified several instances of mismanagement
of administrative funds. For example, in administering these programs, the
Service did not have criteria for selecting some grant recipients, failed
to provide adequate oversight of grantees, and did not maintain adequate
grant files. In addition, GAO found that grant transactions could not be
reconciled between regional and headquarter financial systems, resulting
in millions of dollars in discrepancies.
In response to our work and the work of others, Congress enacted the
Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs Improvement Act (Improvement
Act) in November
2000. The Improvement Act amended the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife
Restoration Act and the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act by
specifying, among other things, how administrative funds should be used
and setting levels for how much the Service can spend on administration of
the programs. Before the Improvement Act, the maximum amount of
administrative funds that could be used for implementing the Wildlife and
Sport Fish Restoration programs was calculated as a percentage of the
total tax receipts for each program. On the basis of these calculations,
in 2000, over $16 million was made available for administration of the
Wildlife Restoration Program and about $15 million was made available for
administration of the Sport Fish Restoration Program. Since the
Improvement Act, funds for administrative costs were fixed in 2001 through
2003 and, thereafter, have been determined by a formula that limits the
annual funds available for administrative activities. In fiscal year 2005,
the Service spent about $8.6 million per program on administration-about
one-half of what was previously spent.
On April 27, 2006, we briefed members of your Subcommittee on the extent
to which the Service has taken corrective action to address the problems
that GAO previously identified. In general, as a result of GAO's prior
work and the Improvement Act in 2000, the Service has made changes that
have had lasting impacts on the management of these programs. The Service
has invested significant effort to make program and policy changes to
address the concerns that we raised in our previous testimonies and to
implement the Improvement Act. For example, in response to GAO's finding
that the Service mismanaged grant programs, the Service terminated some
programs and, for subsequent grant activity, has implemented new
procedures for managing and auditing grants and maintaining grant files.
To resolve problems involving reconciling grant transactions between
regions and headquarters, the Service implemented improved financial
systems and processes that include procedures for reconciling accounts
across three national financial systems on a monthly basis. The regions no
longer utilize separate tracking systems for their grants.
While we found that the Service has implemented several new management
policies and procedures aimed at addressing our previous concerns, a more
definitive statement on the Service's progress would require additional
review. Such reviews are routinely required by the Improvement Act, which
directs the Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General (OIG)
to contract for biennial audits of the funds used to administer these
programs. An audit of fiscal years 2001 and 2002 was completed and a
report issued in 2005; the report did not identify any major weaknesses or
concerns. Audits of subsequent years have not yet been done. Since we
delivered our briefing to the Subcommittee, OIG officials stated that the
OIG expects to solicit contract proposals for the audits of fiscal years
2003 and 2004 and fiscal years 2005 and 2006 in the summer of 2006.
The enclosed briefing document provides relevant details about problems
and corrective actions that the Service has taken since GAO's last review
in 2000 (see enc. I). We conducted our follow-up review in March and
April, 2006, in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards. However, we conducted only limited file reviews and
field-testing to determine the implications of and compliance with the
Service's new policies. Additionally, due to the timing and nature of our
review, we did not conduct a full reliability assessment of the data we
used as background information. Consequently, the background data we
present are of undetermined reliability.
We provided Interior with a draft of this report for review and comment.
Interior generally agreed with our findings and conclusions and provided
editorial and technical comments, which have been incorporated into this
report as appropriate. Interior's letter is contained in enclosure III.
_________________________________________________________________________
As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents of
this report earlier, we plan no further distribution until 7 days from the
report date. At that time, we will make copies of this report available to
interested parties upon request. This report will also be available on the
GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov . Should you or your staff have any
questions, please contact me at (202) 512-3841 or [email protected].
Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public
Affairs may be found on the last page of this report. Key contributors to
this report were Wyatt R. Hundrup, Richard Johnson, Trish McClure, Alison
O'Neill, and Becky Spithill.
Sincerely yours,
Robin M. Nazzaro
Director, Natural Resources
and Environment
Enclosures - 3
Briefing for the House Committee on Ways and Means
Funding Distribution and History
Figures 1 through 4 show the distribution of funding for fiscal year 2005
and the 10-year distribution of funding for the Wildlife and Sport Fish
Restoration programs. Tables 1 and 2 show the 6-year funding history by
state and territory for each program.
Figure 1: Wildlife Restoration Program Tax Receipts, Deductions, and
Apportionment to States for Fiscal Year 2005
Note: As required by law, deductions from excise tax receipts are for
specific programs and funding levels. Data are of undetermined
reliability.
aTotal excise tax receipts available for fiscal year 2005 were collected
in fiscal year 2004.
Figure 2: Wildlife Restoration Program 10-Year Distribution of Funding
Note: As required by law, deductions from excise tax receipts are for
specific programs and funding levels. Data are of undetermined
reliability.
Figure 3: Sport Fish Restoration Program Tax Receipts, Deductions, and
Apportionment to States for Fiscal Year 2005
Note: As required by law, deductions from excise tax receipts are for
specific programs and funding levels. Data are of undetermined
reliability.
aTotal excise tax receipts available for fiscal year 2005 were collected
in fiscal year 2004 and include interest income.
Figure 4: Sport Fish Restoration Program 10-Year Distribution of Funding
Note: As required by law, deductions from excise tax receipts are for
specific programs and funding levels. Data are of undetermined
reliability. In commenting on a draft of this report, FWS provided new
expenditure data for fiscal years 1996 through 2000. We did not
incorporate these new data because the source of the new information was
unclear. The new data indicate that an additional $174 million was
provided as other deductions during these 5 fiscal years.
Table 1: Wildlife Restoration Grant Apportionments, by State and Territory
Apportionment, by fiscal year
State/Territory 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Alabama $3,439,539 $3,601,969 $3,338,621 $3,775,702 $3,663,087 $4,230,076
Alaska 8,490,358 8,751,120 7,983,824 9,107,484 8,648,602 9,923,370
Arizona 4,587,789 4,932,992 4,537,407 5,197,532 4,869,205 5,683,004
Arkansas 3,378,040 3,913,825 3,508,655 4,010,228 3,918,697 4,445,118
California 6,610,254 6,861,214 6,381,792 7,238,447 6,910,043 8,006,336
Colorado 5,165,816 5,207,659 4,825,397 5,531,602 4,877,855 5,984,357
Connecticut 1,377,963 1,468,648 1,385,216 1,546,663 1,486,607 1,742,114
Delaware 1,111,848 1,203,184 1,124,412 1,262,950 1,210,263 1,408,838
Florida 3,232,040 3,646,351 3,444,451 3,746,895 3,668,356 4,237,774
Georgia 4,120,378 4,373,894 4,054,000 4,581,108 4,464,492 5,165,236
Hawaii 1,111,848 1,203,184 1,124,412 1,261,676 1,207,123 1,405,099
Idaho 3,646,285 3,846,148 3,541,687 4,040,511 3,843,730 4,472,883
Illinois 3,923,826 4,176,153 3,891,429 4,400,997 4,139,926 4,857,279
Indiana 3,381,836 3,605,023 3,359,147 3,757,147 3,552,883 3,890,090
Iowa 3,359,777 3,442,710 3,156,428 3,581,704 3,330,454 4,037,099
Kansas 3,476,842 3,593,167 3,313,795 3,788,859 3,492,399 4,130,946
Kentucky 3,117,435 3,273,091 3,381,505 3,808,948 3,734,407 4,312,192
Louisiana 3,269,918 3,568,107 3,364,827 3,707,453 3,516,769 4,108,925
Maine 2,147,882 2,350,572 2,184,511 2,432,581 2,219,066 2,675,874
Maryland 1,812,194 1,972,019 1,871,410 2,066,965 1,987,636 2,313,018
Massachusetts 1,695,875 1,932,233 1,845,915 2,044,342 1,974,680 2,330,650
Michigan 7,349,739 7,449,040 6,765,477 7,681,412 7,181,520 8,459,634
Minnesota 5,633,453 6,097,120 5,742,969 6,431,784 6,203,606 7,168,249
Mississippi 2,953,368 3,080,128 2,881,368 3,249,737 3,106,745 3,559,917
Missouri 5,277,938 5,492,864 5,096,878 5,771,360 5,819,002 6,739,125
Montana 5,549,783 5,655,957 5,168,420 5,958,327 5,372,411 6,266,710
Nebraska 3,246,130 3,345,022 3,082,306 3,518,769 3,284,266 3,829,113
Nevada 3,466,997 3,544,874 3,268,082 3,743,824 3,559,648 4,097,241
New Hampshire 1,111,848 1,203,184 1,132,469 1,264,195 1,214,574 1,442,482
New Jersey 1,695,875 1,932,233 1,845,915 2,044,342 1,974,680 2,330,650
New Mexico 4,071,712 4,050,224 3,742,975 4,311,943 4,144,775 4,761,855
New York 5,724,950 6,053,350 5,589,079 6,308,475 6,055,166 6,783,004
North Carolina 4,153,277 4,624,376 4,370,014 4,829,534 4,920,679 5,642,181
North Dakota 2,675,781 2,835,946 2,637,355 2,991,063 2,990,057 3,444,052
Ohio 4,735,241 4,884,420 4,224,146 4,762,854 4,333,368 5,264,165
Oklahoma 3,822,713 4,017,969 3,747,979 4,260,451 4,314,718 4,909,020
Oregon 4,652,858 4,821,928 4,420,486 5,018,969 4,686,460 5,481,960
Pennsylvania 7,602,373 7,872,824 7,047,696 8,020,697 7,837,535 8,980,993
Rhode Island 1,111,848 1,203,184 1,121,404 1,261,676 1,207,123 1,405,099
South Carolina 2,548,294 2,941,280 2,718,409 3,065,525 3,174,258 2,283,303
South Dakota 3,242,050 3,450,120 3,272,354 3,737,508 3,440,127 4,015,800
Tennessee 5,009,785 5,365,733 5,086,100 5,737,747 5,988,969 7,081,929
Texas 9,074,385 9,480,169 8,678,260 9,877,416 9,384,766 10,811,538
Utah 3,468,682 3,608,553 3,223,740 3,641,119 3,383,152 3,919,659
Vermont 1,111,848 1,203,184 1,134,399 1,264,743 1,207,123 1,405,099
Virginia 3,597,711 3,823,905 3,556,051 3,999,477 3,845,157 4,458,365
Washington 3,712,928 4,377,113 3,730,039 4,199,436 3,930,101 4,588,931
West Virginia 2,360,616 2,466,988 2,275,728 2,569,388 2,537,373 2,831,168
Wisconsin 6,121,170 6,500,414 6,049,578 6,827,601 6,041,016 7,356,101
Wyoming 3,519,514 3,618,365 3,355,160 3,860,291 3,577,733 4,193,838
Puerto Rico 819,834 899,413 819,525 935,564 887,305 1,019,450
American Samoa 321,947 340,307 313,426 355,336 338,410 391,236
Guam 321,947 340,307 313,426 355,336 339,456 391,236
N. Mariana
Islands 321,947 340,307 313,426 355,336 338,410 391,236
U.S. Virgin
Islands 321,947 340,307 313,426 355,336 338,410 391,236
Total $193,168,232 $204,184,371 $188,656,906 $213,456,365 $203,674,379 $235,455,853
Source: Fish and Wildlife Service.
Note: Data are of undetermined reliability.
Table 2: Sport Fish Restoration Grant Apportionments, by State and
Territory
Apportionment,by fiscal year
State/Territory 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Alabama $3,607,904 $3,578,395 $4,344,357 $3,935,974 $3,977,923 $4,422,820
Alaska 2,046,916 12,042,643 14,639,339 13,262,060 13,026,348 14,734,564
Arizona 5,089,496 5,104,112 6,168,683 5,588,641 5,080,854 5,922,343
Arkansas 3,968,596 4,608,841 5,492,558 4,976,294 4,888,967 5,642,674
California 12,046,916 12,042,643 14,639,339 13,262,060 13,026,348 14,734,564
Colorado 6,198,128 6,076,753 7,470,694 6,768,365 6,130,350 7,008,028
Connecticut 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,270 2,946,913
Delaware 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,270 2,946,913
District of
Columbia 803,128 802,843 975,956 884,137 868,423 982,304
Florida 6,221,202 6,786,688 8,192,210 7,422,277 6,709,079 7,914,307
Georgia 4,331,459 4,430,864 5,490,619 4,974,514 5,006,056 5,633,286
Hawaii 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,270 2,946,913
Idaho 4,114,980 4,184,546 5,054,689 4,579,437 4,346,375 5,001,608
Illinois 4,963,612 4,846,195 5,890,316 5,336,662 5,348,978 5,892,633
Indiana 3,820,091 3,640,742 4,509,106 4,085,311 3,956,407 4,043,934
Iowa 3,318,153 3,235,203 3,976,820 3,602,952 3,547,516 4,232,551
Kansas 3,666,601 3,583,933 4,343,909 3,919,441 3,787,002 4,262,230
Kentucky 3,486,222 3,544,162 4,620,993 4,186,668 3,998,491 4,629,054
Louisiana 4,103,273 4,161,257 5,216,669 4,726,339 4,095,828 5,200,984
Maine 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,270 2,946,913
Maryland 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,270 2,946,913
Massachusetts 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,270 2,946,913
Michigan 8,544,705 8,295,510 9,875,162 8,946,956 8,756,422 9,945,909
Minnesota 8,928,236 9,006,160 11,109,195 10,065,088 9,839,478 11,165,735
Mississippi 3,100,738 3,107,013 3,802,970 3,445,468 3,255,720 3,650,051
Missouri 5,962,844 5,790,174 7,026,778 6,366,300 6,119,893 7,134,020
Montana 5,579,059 5,582,909 6,841,449 6,198,060 6,107,345 7,019,722
Nebraska 3,014,134 3,000,164 3,690,052 3,343,038 3,213,424 3,630,946
Nevada 3,698,911 3,727,333 4,517,158 4,092,296 3,895,507 4,414,267
New Hampshire 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,270 2,946,913
New Jersey 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,270 2,946,913
New Mexico 4,372,502 4,253,966 5,256,713 4,762,323 4,654,679 5,132,285
New York 6,064,107 5,984,692 7,265,735 6,582,873 6,630,580 7,396,138
North Carolina 3,813,798 4,213,868 5,156,759 4,672,046 5,137,132 5,494,411
North Dakota 2,517,005 2,570,530 3,184,494 2,885,004 2,934,801 3,278,612
Ohio 6,254,392 6,236,489 6,510,566 5,898,692 6,014,871 6,878,971
Oklahoma 4,694,058 4,642,549 5,723,808 5,185,748 5,074,677 5,623,487
Oregon 5,496,382 5,427,038 6,693,758 6,064,454 6,374,666 7,087,755
Pennsylvania 6,046,806 5,948,640 7,269,800 6,586,588 6,628,025 7,489,335
Rhode Island 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,270 2,946,913
South Carolina 3,097,296 3,023,568 3,584,458 3,247,558 3,513,295 3,702,853
South Dakota 3,087,681 3,129,186 3,652,826 3,309,311 3,335,006 3,699,812
Tennessee 5,408,189 5,487,737 6,613,433 5,991,907 5,969,718 7,029,132
Texas 12,046,916 12,042,643 14,639,339 13,262,060 13,026,348 14,734,564
Utah 4,352,260 4,252,849 5,171,677 4,685,429 4,463,918 4,899,623
Vermont 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,270 2,946,913
Virginia 3,928,056 3,853,428 4,764,894 4,317,041 4,325,856 4,731,149
Washington 4,908,353 4,883,821 6,054,262 5,485,151 5,808,249 6,124,056
West Virginia 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,270 2,946,913
Wisconsin 8,239,191 7,679,996 9,500,662 8,607,773 8,909,312 10,191,022
Wyoming 3,870,908 3,929,060 4,816,330 4,363,414 4,006,180 4,687,372
Puerto Rico 2,409,383 2,408,529 2,927,868 2,652,413 2,605,269 2,946,912
American Samoa 803,128 802,843 975,956 884,137 868,423 982,304
Guam 803,128 802,843 975,956 884,137 868,423 982,304
N. Mariana
Islands 803,128 802,843 975,956 884,137 868,423 982,304
U.S. Virgin
Islands 803,128 802,843 975,956 884,137 868,423 982,304
Total $240,938,312 $240,852,863 $292,786,775 $265,241,214 $260,526,978 $294,691,282
Source: Fish and Wildlife Service.
Note: Data are of undetermined reliability.
Comments from the Department of the Interior
(360678)
*** End of document. ***