From July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2015, Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources received $33.2 Million on 44 grants awarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). FWS provided the grants to the State under the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program. In our audit, we questioned costs totaling $66,617, including out-of-period costs. We determined that the Department had not reported all program income and incorrectly reported the number of unique license holders on the annual hunting license certifications. The Department also did not report $548,903 in additional program income from agricultural leases as well as shooting range fees.
We also found that conditions identified in a previous audit regarding in-kind volunteer time and real property continued to exist.
We made nine new recommendations and repeated a recommendation from a previous audit that had not been implemented. The Department and FWS concurred with the new recommendations.