Democrats in the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee renewed criticism of NOAA’s handling of misspent funds by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) in a letter calling for action.
The letter, signed by multiple members of the committee including U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) and U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California), referenced an audit by the U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General – which oversees NOAA – of funds spent by WPRFMC that it had it received from the Western Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Fund. The audit, performed in 2021, found the council’s governance of fisheries fund awards was inadequate, leading to potential misuse of the money.
The report found the council and its subrecipients claimed questionable costs of USD 1.23 million (EUR 1.15 million) in awards through the fund, and did not “retain adequate support for claimed costs, obtain required approvals from the awarding agency, or properly allocate costs.”
According to the new letter from the House Natural Resource Committee’s members, WPRFMC has still failed to account for over USD 837,000 (EUR 785,000) in misspent taxpayer money. The letter also said NOAA has still not delivered a formal response to the request to rectify the misspent funds.
As of now, the letter states, the WPRFMC has only offered inadequate solutions to the problem.
“We understand that WPRFMC has not yet repaid these funds and has since submitted two proposed actions to meet repayment requirements. These are: 1) use additional federal funding to deliver on a repayment schedule, or 2) seek debt forgiveness through the Department of Justice,” the letter states. “These actions make taxpayers pay twice for WPRFMC’s transgressions. Redirecting new federal funds to repayment or simply forgiving the misspent funds without any accountability for those who oversaw or approved such mishandling of federal dollars will further erode the public’s trust in our government’s ability to fulfill its duties responsibly.”
The letter requests NOAA conduct an assessment of its authority to seek reimbursement, its ability to hold the grand administrator responsible for paying back misused funds, and enforce spending caps on travel budgets and hotel allowances.
“While we understand that WPRFMC receives the totality of its funding through the federal government, NOAA must not allow the council to conduct business as usual without accountability for those responsible,” the letter said.
The letter comes soon after the fisheries council met and once again signaled opposition to the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden’s plans to establish a new marine monument in the Pacific Remote Islands. Council members have been openly critical of the monument, which would create a 770,000-square-mile area that would be fully conserved and bar all fishing.
Council members had already spoken out against the proposed monument, saying it would devastate the local economy and likely not benefit the environment as existing fishing regulations already include habitat protection.
The council’s opposition to the monument, according to the representative’s letter to NOAA, may have actually gone beyond what is allowed by law.
“WPRFMC staff have worked to oppose marine protections and designations for years, providing behind-the-scenes lobbying services to opponents of such designations and organizing rallies in opposition,” the letter said. “These and other actions may amount to improper lobbying with federal funds. While WPRFMC has an important role in the potential designation of marine sanctuaries in the Western Pacific under the National Marine Sanctuary Act, their actions should be limited to direct interaction between the council itself and NOAA and not through improper lobbying.”
Representative Ed Case told Civil Beat that the committee has questions about NOAA’s oversight in general not just about the WPRFMC.
“I think NOAA does a good job, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve a little oversight,” Case told the media. “After all, this happened on NOAA’s watch. How did it happen that Wespac got away with misusing all of that federal money for years when they’re supposed to be overseen by NOAA? That’s a legitimate question for Congress to ask.”
Photo courtesy of U.S. House of Representatives, Committee Repository
