[Reimbursement of Firefighting Costs, Bureau of Land Management]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]

Title: ï¿½

Date:  July 27, 1998




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U.S. Department of the Interior
Office of Inspector General



AUDIT REPORT


REIMBURSEMENT OF FIREFIGHTING COSTS,
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT

REPORT NO. 98-I-551

JULY 1998




MEMORANDUM


TO:               The Secretary

FROM:             Richard N. Reback
                  Acting  Inspector General

SUBJECT SUMMARY:  Final Audit Report for Your Information
                  - "Reimbursement of Firefighting Costs,
                  Bureau of Land Management" (No. 98-I-551)


Attached for your information is a copy of the subject final audit  report.  This report
presents the results of our audit of the Bureau of Land Management's reimbursable firefighting
activities.  The objective of our audit was to determine whether selected Bureau field
offices were recovering appropriate amounts for reimbursable firefighting activities.

We determined that the eight Bureau district offices reviewed did not recover appropriate
amounts for reimbursable firefighting activities associated with human-caused fires and that
the Bureau's California State Office did not adequately classify assistance-type fires as to
reimbursability.  The district offices did not recover appropriate amounts because they did
not (1) give sufficient priority to fire investigations; (2) adequately document fire
investigations, their status, and their results; or (3) adequately classify human-caused
fires
as reimbursable when an initial determination of responsibility was made.  The California
State Office did not fully recover reimbursable costs from the State of California because it
did not adequately identify and document whether assistance provided during specific fires
was reimbursable.  As a result, the district offices did not recover up to $6 million of the
costs associated with 153 human-caused fires that occurred during the period of 1993
through 1996, and the California State Office did not recover costs of $480,000 associated
with reimbursable assistance-type fires.

In addition, once specific fires were determined to be reimbursable, 9 of the 12 Bureau
offices reviewed did not always determine the appropriate amounts to be billed or properly
record, bill, or collect reimbursable firefighting costs.  As a result of not adequately
accounting for reimbursable firefighting costs, reimbursable costs of at least $137,000 were
not billed or recovered, and Government financing costs of about $47,000 were incurred
because of delays in billing costs totaling $765,000 and in depositing reimbursements
totaling $351,000.

Based on the Bureau's response, we considered two of the report's eight recommendations
resolved  but  not implemented and requested additional information for the remaining six
recommendations.

If you have any questions concerning this matter, please contact me at (202) 208-5745 or
Mr.  Robert J. Williams, Assistant Inspector General for Audits, at (202) 208-4252.



Attachment




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INSPECTOR GENERAL BY:

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