Wespac Seeks Outside Counsel To Challenge Auditor’s Findings

Last year, the Office of the Inspector General for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a scathing audit of the way in which the Western Pacific Fishery Regional Management Council (WPRFMC, or Wespac for short) had used monies from its Sustainable Fisheries Fund. The fund is separate and apart from the council’s congressionally appropriated budget and comes from fines levied against foreign-flagged vessels fishing illegally in U.S. waters and from payments made by the Hawaiʻi based longliners to the U.S. territories in return for allocations of a portion of the territorial bigeye tuna quotas.

The OIG determined that $1,237,671 in costs were not allowable. 

The council challenged the OIG’s findings. Among other things, the council pleaded ignorance of federal requirements regarding administrative costs and employee compensation; it claimed records that would have documented some expenses were not retained past the required retention period; and it said it was unaware that certain expenditures required NOAA’s written approval to be allowable expenses for federal awards. 

In response to the council’s rebuttal of the audit’s findings, the OIG turned the matter over to NOAA’s Grants Management Division for a final determination.

If the council had hoped that that division would look on its pleadings more sympathetically, those hopes were dashed in February. By letter dated February 22, the director of that division, Arlene Simpson Porter, informed the council that it endorsed the OIG findings to the last dollar.

What’s more, Porter informed the council that her letter “serves as the first official notification of a debt owed to NOAA. [The council] will receive a billing notice from the NOAA Finance Office requesting $1,237,671 in payment for the disallowed costs … Repayment of the debt will be due 30 days from the date of the billing notice.”

Should the council not pay, Porter continued, “NOAA is entitled to take all appropriate steps to collect delinquent debts and will do so in this case if the debt is not paid as demanded above.”

The council has appealed those findings and is seeking outside legal counsel to help it prepare a defense. In June, a press release posted on the council’s website announced a request for proposals: “Private legal counsel and/or other relevant outside services to support the WPRMFC’s [sic] response to NOAA GMD Audit Resolution Determination.”

The chosen contractor “shall provide legal review and analysis” of the OIG’s final report, the Grants Management Division’s determination letter, “and other relevant information to assist the council in drafting its formal response to the NOAA GMD.”

The notice was posted on June 17, and the selected contractor was supposed to begin work June 25, 2022 – “or as soon as available” – with work to be completed by August 1.

Environment Hawaiʻi has attempted to determine who was retained by the council, what they are being paid, and from what funds payment is being drawn. So far, neither NOAA nor the council has provided an answer. NOAA Grants Management Division said that the council has been given until August 30 to respond to its determination.

— Patricia Tummons

For Further Reading

The OIG report and the council’s response were the subject of reporting in the December 2021 edition of Environment Hawaiʻi: “Fisheries Fund Awards by Wespac Are Criticized by Commerce Auditor.”