"Audit launched into anti-wolf funding"
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/56567083-90/audit-forever-game-group.html.cspLegislative leaders on Monday ordered an audit to examine how a political-action organization has spent Utah taxpayers’ money in an ongoing effort to wrest control of wolf management from federal hands.
Big Game Forever, a Utah-based nonprofit that spun off Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife in 2010, has secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in state money during the past four years to evict the gray wolf from the endangered species list. But the group’s founders Don Peay and Ryan Benson have not disclosed where the money goes in their reports to the Legislature and to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).
State auditors have already made informal inquiries into how the group spent a $300,000 appropriation for fiscal year 2013. But because Big Game Forever "commingles" its funds from multiple sources, it might not be possible to determine exactly what Utah taxpayers’ money bought, according to Legislative Auditor General John Schaff.
"How do I know that receipt is for state money versus funds coming from other sources?" Schaff told the legislative audit subcommittee Monday. "The problem is this is a private company. We have authority to look at state funding. We don’t have authority to look at funding from other sources."
This did not sit well with Senate Minority Leader Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, who requested the audit.
"I would like to see accountability on the half million that has been spent. I would like to see where that money went and for what purposes," Davis said.
Meanwhile, Big Game Forever is poised to receive a second $300,000 state appropriation for fiscal year 2014. Davis argued that DWR, which manages the contract with Big Game Forever, should withhold the money pending the release of the audit.
The audit subcommittee, however, lacks the authority to do that, but some lawmakers may ask DWR to sit on the money.
The panel did ask Schaff to find out what other states, if any, are funding Big Game Forever, how much they contribute and to explore how it will spend the next $300,000.
During the legislative session, Peay told lawmakers he was going to use the money to block federal attempts to "introduce" Mexican gray wolves into southern Utah, even though there is scant evidence such a plan is afoot.
