ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609090050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
An auditor's report criticizing the state Department of Conservation and Recreation for shoddy financial management prompted a General Assembly investigation.
Department Director Kathleen Lawrence said Thursday that she welcomes the inquiry.
Walter Kucharski, the state auditor of public accounts, said last week that the department could lose federal grants because of the mismanagement.
``With millions of dollars at stake, it is vital that we conduct a thorough review here,'' said state Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville and chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Recreation Committee.
Marye will appoint senators to join a House of Delegates committee already examining the state parks system, which is operated by the conservation department. The committee will add the financial mismanagement, and corrective steps being taken by Lawrence, to its review.
``This agency had been getting not the best audits for 10 years,'' said Lawrence, who took over as the department's director May 6. ``The attention is long overdue. I think it is important to the taxpayers of Virginia, and the taxpayers nationally, that their money be accounted for with precision.''
Lawrence said she has instituted financial controls that should solve the problems cited by Kucharski, whose audit covered the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1995.
``A lack of leadership and technical competence is the cause of numerous internal [financial] control weaknesses,'' he said in the report.
The conservation department oversees 26 state parks, some anti-pollution programs, dam safety and a program to protect rare species. It has a $23 million general fund budget and also received $5.1 million in federal grants in 1994-95.
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