Federal Reports

We audited the costs claimed by the by the State of West Virginia, Division of Natural Resources (Division), under grants awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program. The audit included claims totaling approximately $46.2 million on 29 grants that were open during the State fiscal years that ended June 30, 2017, and June 30, 2018. The audit also covered the Division’s compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and FWS guidelines, including those related to the collection and use of hunting and fishing license revenues and the reporting of program income.We found that the Division complied, in general, with applicable grant accounting and regulatory requirements. The Division, however, did not report barter transactions on the financial reports to the FWS as required. In addition, the Division and the FWS did not complete a required reconciliation of their respective real property inventories. The FWS concurred with our three recommendations and will work with the Division to implement corrective actions.

We audited costs claimed by the Alabama Department of Conservation, Marine Resources Division (Department), under grants awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program (WSFR). The audit period included claims totaling $5.1 million on 23 grants that were open during the State fiscal years that ended September 30, 2017, and September 30, 2018. The audit also covered the Department’s compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and FWS guidelines, including those related to collecting and using fishing license revenues and reporting program income.We found that the Department generally ensured that grant funds and State fishing license revenue were used for allowable fish activities and complied with applicable laws and regulations, FWS guidelines, and grant agreements. We noted, however, the Marine Resources Division purchased items with grants funds that were unallowable, and we questioned $3,112 ($2,334 Federal share) in ineligible costs associated with these purchases. We also found that the Department overdrew $5,164 ($3,873 Federal share) from a grant because the Department failed to appropriately report program income. We further determined the Department did not comply with Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 requirements by not reporting subawards greater than $25,000 on USASpending.gov.The FWS concurred with all five recommendations and will work with the Department to implement them. Based on the Department’s and FWS’ responses, we considered Recommendation 2 resolved and implemented and Recommendations 1 and 3 – 5 resolved but not implemented.

We conducted an audit of the National Endowment for the Arts (Arts Endowment) charge cards to determine if transactions follow requirements outlined in the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012. We tested transactions made using Arts Endowment purchase charge cards (“purchase cards”) and travel charge cards (“travel cards”), collectively charge cards, that occurred during fiscal year (FY) 2019. Our audit concluded the following: one purchase card holder did not have a training certificate indicating the employee completed appropriate training; the monthly billing statement for one purchase card transaction was not countersigned by the corresponding Approving Official, per the Arts Endowment Credit Card Holders & Purchase Limits Table; Arts Endowment did not conduct a periodic review to determine whether travel cards are necessary for all travel card holders; Arts Endowment did not conduct a periodic review to determine whether purchase cards are necessary for all purchase card holders; two travel card transaction subsamples occurring in September 2019 did not have associated vouchers; and Subsample 27.2 had an amount discrepancy when reconciling all provided transaction documents.