Federal Reports

Under the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) provides grant funds to eligible States to conserve, restore, and manage wildlife and sport fish resources. States may provide Program funds to other non-Federal entities to accomplish or support grant-related activities. State officials must use judgment in determining whether these partnerships align more closely with the characteristics of a subaward of financial assistance to a subrecipient or of procurement from a contractor. Depending on the States’ determination, non-Federal entities are subject to differing criteria for accountability, profit taking, asset management, revenue management, and the treatment of indirect costs under Federal Uniform Grant Guidance.During our Program grant audits, we found instances in which the States did not apply Federal Uniform Grant Guidance consistently and accurately when providing Program funds to non-Federal entities. We also found that a number of States had not conducted or documented risk assessments for subrecipients, nor publicly reported major subawards.We make three recommendations to help the FWS promote consistency in how States administer Program funds and improve conformance with Federal regulations.

We completed a verification review of eight recommendations presented in the subject report. The objective of this review was to determine whether the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement implemented the recommendations as reported to the Office of Financial Management (PFM), Office of Policy, Management and Budget. The PFM reported to us that it closed the recommendations. We concur that all the recommendations have been resolved and implemented.

We reviewed three recommendations (recommendations 2, 3, and 4) made in our September 2013 evaluation report titled U.S. Department of the Interior’s Offshore Renewable Energy Program to verify that the Department implemented the recommendations.We confirmed that recommendations 3 and 4 have been resolved, implemented, and closed, but that recommendation 2 has not been fully implemented.

We reviewed two recommendations (recommendations 6 and 8) made in our February 2016 inspection report titled U.S. Department of the Interior’s Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation Programs to verify that the Department implemented the recommendations.We confirmed that recommendations 6 and 8 have been resolved, implemented, and closed.

We reviewed the three recommendations presented in our 2016 management advisory titled Office of Aviation Services’ Maintenance System Presents a Threat to Public Health and Safety to verify whether the Office of Aviation Services had implemented them.We confirmed that Recommendation 1 has been implemented, but Recommendations 2 and 3 have not. We ask that the Office of Financial Management reopen Recommendations 2 and 3 for resolution and tracking.

To see our report, click on the link below