State auditor general to audit Pennsylvania Game Commission
Olivia Goudy | Herald-Standard
Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale announced Tuesday that his office will audit the state Game Commission, adding that he anticipates the audit will be completed later this year.
Michael Palm | Herald-Standard
Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale announced Tuesday that his office would be conducting the first performance audit of the state Game Commission in nearly a decade.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale announced at a press conference Tuesday that his office will immediately begin auditing the state Game Commission, which he said sells almost 1 million hunting licenses annually.
“I look forward to a constructive and positive audit to provide an independent assessment of the commission’s revenues and expenditures,” DePasquale said. “My team will evaluate the commission to ensure its resources are being used to benefit the millions of Pennsylvanians who enjoy hunting, trapping and other outdoor recreational activities.”
DePasquale said he anticipates the audit will be completed later this year but added that there is no specific time frame for completing the audit, which will cover three fiscal years from July 1, 2014, through June 30, 2017, and could go back further.
It will be the first performance audit of the commission in nearly a decade, DePasquale said.
Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Bryan Burhans said in a statement that the commission looks forward to working with the auditor general.
“We are confident that the results of the audit will confirm that our financial house is in order, and that we have efficiently used our resources in furtherance of our mission of managing the Commonwealth’s wildlife,” Burhans said.
DePasquale, a Democrat, announced the audit alongside state Rep. David M. Maloney Sr., R-Pike Township, commending Maloney for his push for the audit along with Rep. Michael K. Hanna, D-Lock Haven, Rep. Dave Reed, R-White Township, and other elected officials.
Maloney expressed concern during the press conference about the commission’s management of white-tailed deer and ruffed grouse.
“We have seen checks written for $250,000 at a time given to nonprofits. We’ve had a major ethics violation take place,” Maloney said, ostensibly referring to the commission’s former director of the Bureau of Wildlife Habitat Management, William Capouillez, being fined $75,000 in 2016 for violating state ethics rules. “These are all things … the sportsmen of Pennsylvania did not do.”
Maloney said that state legislative budget and finance reports showed hundreds of millions of dollars of lost revenue due to what he viewed as wildlife mismanagement.
“Let’s just take the ruffed grouse,” Maloney said. “If we do not have the product, then we will not have the pursuing of it. So that economic decline that follows that is significant.”
“We are … optimistic that the results will correct some misconceptions that continue to persist within segments of the Legislature and the hunting community, and will allow us to move forward to address the challenges facing wildlife in the Commonwealth,” Burhans said.
Pennsylvania Game Commission Communications Director Travis Lau added that one misconception is that the game commission is flush with money from Marcellus shale.
“That’s an important source of revenue, but does not provide the relief many believe it does,” Lau said.
DePasquale noted that the Pennsylvania Game Commission does not receive a direct appropriation from the state’s general fund budget but handles nearly $7 million per year in timber sales and more than $23.3 million in revenue and oil and gas leasing, which DePasquale said tripled between 2008 and 2014.
Rep. Bud Cook, R-Coal Center, welcomed the audit.
A member of the House Game & Fisheries and Tourism & Recreational Development committees, Cook called for the resignation of Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) Executive Director John Arway in November over accusations of political gamesmanship and said Tuesday that the PFBC and game commission had both shown a “cultural arrogance” instead of coming up with sound business plans for the future.
“Show me the beef,” Cook said.
Cook said last year that he had been “attacked and criticized” by Arway for opposing a PFBC fee increase. Arway said in a responding statement that PFBC had been trying to work with the legislature for the past five years on a plan that would provide financial stability for the anglers and boaters in the state.
The Game Commission announced in June that the full regulations digest typically given out when hunters buy licenses would not being provided for free, with printed digests instead costing $6.
Burhans explained the decision was motivated by the agency’s financial situation, which already has caused the commission to cut programs and personnel.
“These kinds of reductions in services are necessary as the Game Commission approaches nearly two decades without an increase in the cost of a general hunting or furtaker license,” Burhans said in June.
The Game Commission also required all adult and senior pheasant hunters to buy a $26.90 permit.
DePasquale encouraged state residents to go to http://www.paauditor.gov/auditor-general-hotline or call 1-800-922-8477 to submit issues that they want his office to ask about during the audit.
“We follow up on all of those leads,” DePasquale said.