HARRISBURG — Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor released an audit of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) that showed it did not award all Community Conservation Partnerships Program (C2P2) grants competitively.

Instead, DCNR used its own discretion when awarding some grants despite advertising it as a competitive process.

“We found instances where DCNR executive management made the decision to award grants to applicants who missed application deadlines, funded projects that were ranked lower than others or ignored the ranking altogether,” Auditor General DeFoor said.

“This is very concerning because DCNR’s executive management opened the door to outside pressure and influence in awarding state grants by not solely relying on the advertised process. When management can make its own rules, it diminishes the integrity of a grant program.”

The audit, which included grants issued between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2023, had three objectives:

Auditors had three findings in the audit, which include:

The C2P2 program provides federal and state grants to municipalities, non-profit organizations and other community-based organizations for conservation projects. Auditors provided seven recommendations to DCNR to improve the grant process and oversight. These include following existing policies and procedures, using electronic submission of documents to monitor grants and improve oversight of the inspection process for federally funded grants.

“The good news is that we have an agency that is willing to implement change and do better,” DeFoor said. “DCNR’s commitment to supporting these projects is commendable, but these are taxpayer-funded programs. When it comes to spending taxpayer dollars, internal controls and processes must be followed and any practice that undermines objectivity, accountability and transparency must be eliminated.”