State wildlife officials say auditor’s letter inaccurate

Thursday, May 7, 1998 | 11:46 a.m.

Agency officials say no serious problems exist and that they were confused by the confidential letter, sent to lawmakers by Legislative Auditor Gary Crews.

Crews said he couldn't discuss publicly the contents of the letter, and the issue was never brought before the Interim Finance Committee, which conducted its regular meeting Wednesday to review changes to state budgets.

In an interview outside the meeting, state Conservation Director Pete Morros said the two major concerns outlined in the letter were inaccurate. The department oversees the Wildlife Division.

One concern was that 300 deer tags were unaccounted for by the agency. The tags are issued to hunters who win one in a drawing held each year. The documents are valuable because hunters always outnumber the tags available.

Morros said two tags are missing, and he said they likely will be found in the office. The two missing tags were discolored, and they were not used and set aside, he said.

The other concern was that $97,000 was unaccounted for in the tag-drawing budget account, but Morros said that he had seen the balance sheet and that the funds were accounted for.

No criminal allegations were made in the letter.

Crews said the Wildlife Division audit has been completed and will be available to the public once it is delivered to the Audit Committee.

Morros said he didn't know why the letter was sent after the issues had been explained satisfactorily.

But Morros and Wildlife Division Administrator Willie Molini were on hand to talk to lawmakers.

Also in attendance was Don Sefton, owner of Systems Consultants of Fallon, which since 1993 has run the deer tag drawing. Previous audits found questions about the way the drawing had been conducted by the division.

Sefton said all money relating to the drawing is accounted for.

Molini, who announced recently that he would be retiring as administrator of the division this fall, has been under fire from a vocal group of hunters who accuse him of mismanaging the agency.

For two years, Molini overspent money in his budgets, which caused lawmakers to warn him to get the finances in order. Other complaints concern fewer numbers of deer and fewer deer tag applications being authorized for hunters.