Our audit of costs claimed by the State of Ohio, Department of Natural Resources (Department) under grants awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) included claims totaling $59.8 million on 17 grants that were open during the State fiscal years that ended June 30, 2015, and June 30, 2016. The audit also covered the Department’s compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and FWS guidelines, including those related to the collection and use of hunting and fishing license revenue and the reporting of program income.
Although that the Department generally complied with applicable grant accounting and regulatory requirements, we questioned costs totaling $144,419 related to unsupported and out-of-period costs with subawards. In addition, we found that the Department 1) had not provided sufficient oversight of subawards, 2) was unable to support payroll charged to license revenue, 3) potential diversion of $2.4 million of license revenue related to unsupported centralized services, and 4) potentially diverted real property acquired with license revenue.